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Author profile

Michael Connelly and his crime novels

Michael Connelly covered crime in South Florida and at the Los Angeles Times before publishing The Black Echo in 1992. His first novel introduced Harry Bosch and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Born 1956Crime novelistFormer crime journalist
Official website
View 1 reviewed book

Biography and criticism

Three ways into Connelly’s Los Angeles

Connelly’s former work as a crime reporter shows in the attention he pays to how people get information and what they can do with it once they have it.

The detective, the lawyer, and the night shift

The Black Echo introduces Bosch as a homicide detective who brings his own history to a case. A dead man he knew in Vietnam connects a Los Angeles investigation to his years in the Army. The Lincoln Lawyer follows Mickey Haller through a different part of the same system. His job is to test the case the police and prosecutors bring him, and his relationship with his own client can be every bit as difficult as his dealings with the state.

In The Late Show, Renée Ballard works Hollywood’s overnight shift, where the next watch can take over the case she started. Dark Sacred Night brings her together with a retired Bosch over the killing of a teenage runaway. Ballard has a job and colleagues of her own to deal with. Bosch brings years of experience and a case he’s unwilling to abandon.

All 26 Harry Bosch novels in reading order

When an old case becomes personal

I would start with The Black Echo for Bosch’s career or The Last Coyote for his childhood. In The Last Coyote, he goes through the investigation of his mother’s death while on leave from the LAPD. In The Hollow, the 26th Bosch novel, he returns as a retired detective to investigate the death of a boy he knew at MacLaren Children’s Center. Reading the two cases together shows how long Bosch has carried those losses and how they shape the questions he asks.

The Poet is another way into Connelly’s work. Crime reporter Jack McEvoy has to persuade people to talk to him after his brother dies. That investigation continues in The Narrows, with Bosch and FBI agent Rachel Walling taking up the case.

My spoiler-free review of The Hollow · Seven books like The Hollow, including The Last Coyote and The Poet

Crime FictionThriller

Where to begin

The Michael Connelly book reviewed here

Cover of The Hollow
Reviewed on this site

The Hollow

4 / 5

Connelly sends retired detective Harry Bosch back to MacLaren Children’s Center, where a death he remembers from childhood still needs an investigation.

Reading order and buying help

Reading guides featuring Michael Connelly

Reading orderHarry Bosch books in order

Bibliography

Books by Michael Connelly

Reviews and book guides open on Book Review Guide. The full list comes from the linked bibliography source.

Cover unavailable

Not reviewed yet

The Black Echo

First published 1992
Cover unavailable

Not reviewed yet

The Last Coyote

First published 1995
Cover unavailable

Not reviewed yet

The Poet

First published 1996
Cover unavailable

Not reviewed yet

The Lincoln Lawyer

First published 2005
Cover unavailable

Not reviewed yet

The Late Show

First published 2017
Cover unavailable

Not reviewed yet

Dark Sacred Night

First published 2018

Bibliographic source: Michael Connelly’s official series order.

Books on this site

Michael Connelly reviews and guides

Keep exploring

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