Michael Connelly is the author of the bestselling Harry Bosch series of detective novels, as well as a number of crime fiction novels that have made the #1 New York Times bestsellers lists. Top titles include The Fifth Witness, The Reversal, The Scarecrow, The Brass Verdict, and The Lincoln Lawyer, which triggered a film adaptation starring Matthew McConaughey.
Connelly “officially” decided to become a writer while attending college after reading the books of detective fiction novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler. He was set on the idea, majoring in Journalism and minoring in Creative Writing. Out of college, he spent a good number of years working for a few newspapers in Florida, writing about police and crime. He covered crime stories during the height of the “cocaine wars” in South Florida. After co-writing a magazine story based on interviews with survivors of a major airline crash, Connelly found himself with an invitation to join the L.A. Times, in the hometown of Chandler.
It wasn’t long before Connelly began cranking out the first few novels of the Harry Bosch series. The first book in the series, The Black Echo (1992), received the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel by the Mystery Writers of America, not a bad start for Connelly’s first attempt at novel writing. Connelly has continued to write novels for the Bosch series ever since, keeping old fans hooked and the new fans coming, as his novels continue to make the bestselling lists for paperback fiction. Part of my intrigue in Connelly’s writing comes from the way he is able to interconnect his novels. His stories, including the many novels published outside of the Henry Bosch series, occur in the same fictional universe, making character crossovers common.
His latest publication is #17 in the Harry Bosch series. In The Drop, Bosch takes on two chilling cases at the same time: one that reveals a killer who may have been operating in his very city for as long as three decades and another that brings him deeper into the history of the police department politics than anyone wants to go. Fans who can’t get enough will be happy to hear that the next novel in the Bosch series, The Black Box, is scheduled for release in November later this year.
Outside of the literary genre, Connelly is currently involved in the production of a documentary film entitled Sound of Redemption, about the late jazz saxophonist (and several times prison inmate!) Frank Morgan. As a fan of Morgan’s music and a supporter of Connelly’s work, I’m looking forward to viewing this film.
