Michael Connelly Books

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Michael Connelly was born on July 21st, 1956 and raised in Philadelphia.

This American author is known for his love for crime genre, that’s why the majority of his books are detective novels.

After Connelly spent a few years working at Los Angeles Times, he wrote his first novel named “The Black Echo” in 1992. Considering that Connelly’s specialties are detective novels, it’s no surprise that this book got its sequel. Because of that, the next book “The Black Ice” was published only a year after the first one. But, this wasn’t the only sequel “The Black Echo” got, because Connelly wrote another two books, “The Concrete Blond” in 1994 and “The Last Coyote” in 1995. This series is known as the Harry Bosch series which is Connellys most famous and highly regarded book series.

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Michael Connelly was born on July 21st 1956 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States of America. His father was a property developer, although Michael Connelly states that he was also a frustrated artists. This allowed Connelly to pursue his goals in life, which ended up being crime fiction thanks to the introduction he received in the subject matter from his mother when he was young. After moving to Florida t the age of 12, by the time Connelly’s 16th birthday came round, while working as a dishwasher, he happened across a gun wrapped in a shirt after watching a man throw it in a hedge. He put the gun back in the hedge, then followed the man who disposed of it to a local bar, then telling his father about the incident. Connelly informed the local police to the man’s whereabouts, but by the time the police arrived, the man he had followed had left the bar. However, this piqued Connelly’s interest in police procedure and the way those men carried out their jobs. The seed was sewn.

Building construction was the first choice of career for Michael Connelly, and he attended the University of Florida hoping to attain a qualification in the field. However, Connelly was not achieving the grades he had hoped in the building field, and after watching The Long Goodye and reading the work of Raymond Chandler, Connelly pursued a different area of study, switching to a journalism major and taking a minor in creative writing. The seeds that had been sewn at the age of 16 were starting to sprout.

In 1980, Michael Connelly graduated from the University of Florida and ended up working as a crime beat writer for a local newspaper, and he continued to work for Florida newspapers until 1987, when he moved to California with his wife Linda. He continued his work in journalism in Los Angeles. It was around that time Connelly completed his first novel, The Black Echo, which was published in 1992. This won him the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was the first book to feature the character of Hieronymus Bosch, better known as Harry Bosch. This would be the beginning of something great for Connelly, as Harry Bosch would go on to become a familiar name in crime fiction circles. While still working as a journalist, Connelly wrote the next three books in the Harry Bosch series of novels – The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde and The Last Coyote, which were released in 1993, 1994 and 1995 respectively. It was after that when Connelly decided to give up his job as a journalist and turn to writing full-time.

What is interesting is that Connelly’s first book as a full-time writer was not a Harry Bosch book, it was to feature Jack McEvoy and was called The Poet. The Poet was released in 1996 and earned Connelly rave reviews. He followed it up in 1997 with the next book in the Harry Bosch series, Trunk Music. He then took another break from Bosch in 1998, writing Blood Work, which featured the character Terry McCaleb, and which was also turned into a film of the same name starring Clint Eastwood. In 1999, it was a return to Harry Bosch in the book Angels Flight. In 2001, Connely paired Bosch and McCaleb up in the book A Darkness More Than Night, after releasing the standalone books Void Moon in 2000.

While 2001 was big for Connelly with the pairing up of Bosch and McCaleb, it also marked his return to Florida, where he moved with his wife and daughter to Tampa Bay. After settling back into life in the southeast, Connelly had two books published in the same year for the first time in 2002. City of Bones continued the story of Harry Bosch, while Chasing the Dime was another standalone piece of work. Lost Light, the next book in the Bosch series of books was published in 2003, and the next, The Narrows, was published in 2004, the tenth book in the Harry Bosch series. The 11th book in the series, The Closers, was published in 2005.

Also in 2005, Connelly’s most famous book was released, The Lincoln Lawyer, which was the first book to feature the character of Mickey Haller. It is perhaps Connelly’s most famous, as it was turned into a film of the same name, which starred Matthew McConaughey and achieved great success in 2011. Connelly followed it up with two books in 2006, the first being a non-fiction book called Crime Beat, which character his life as a crime beat journalist, and the second book was another Harry Bosch book, Echo Park. The Overlook, the next Harry Bosch book, was published in 2007, and that was followed by The Brass Verdict, which was the first time Bosch and Haller would cross paths. Connelly returned to an old character, Jack McEvoy, for his next book, The Scarecrow, which was published in 2009. Bosch and Haller would again come together in 2010 in The Reversal, but not before we see Bosch again in 9 Dragons, which was published in 2009. Haller then returned in his own novel, The Fifth Witness, in 2011. The Drop was next up, another book in the Harry Bosch series, which was also published in 2011. The next Harry Bosch book was published in 2012, The Black Box and then The Gods of Guilt, which is a Mickey Haller story, was published in 2013. It was back to Bosch in 2014 for The Burning Room, and then Haller returned in 2015’s Harry Bosch book, The Crossing.

Michael Connelly has not only achieved great commercial success, but he has also gained a lot of critical success, too, having won all the major prizes in the field of crime fiction, with the most prestigious being the RBA International Prize for Crime Writing in 2012, although it shouldn’t overshadow his Edgar Award wins, his Anthony Awards wins and his Macavity Awards amongst many, many others.

MICHAEL CONNELLY AWARDS

The very first award that he has won was the Edgar Award for the first novel that he wrote. After that, Conelly has won almost every major award that a mystery writer can get. Some of the most important awards that he got are Shamus Award, Barry Award, Ridley Award etc. Also, 4 years ago, “The Black Box” won him RBA International Prize.

MICHAEL CONNELLY BOOKS INTO MOVIES

In 2002, Connelly’s novel “Blood Work” was adapted into a movie, which was directed by one of the most popular actors in the World, Clint Eastwood. Also, Eastwood was the leading role in the movie too.

“Blood Work” isn’t the only novel that was adapted into a movie, the second book made into a movie was “The Lincoln Lawyer”. In 2011, this novel was made into a movie, with Matthew McCaunaghey as the leading role.

BEST MICHAEL CONNELLY BOOKS:

Every novel written by Michael Connelly is worth reading, but of course, some are better than others. That’s why, we decided to list the best three books written by this author, and explain why they’re so good.

In our opinion, the best book by Michael Connelly is “The Poet“. The main character in this book is Jack McEvoy, a man who is extremely familiar with death. The reason for that is the fact that he is a crime reporter and because of his job, he saw almost every kind of murder. Still, that doesn’t help him at all when he finds out that his only brother killed himself. Jack’s brother had a similar job, he was a detective who was very committed to his work. Actually, he was so committed that his job sometimes drove him crazy. He wasn’t able to solve the latest murder case and he was depressed because of that. So, after his brother’s death, McCoy realizes that the best way of coping with pain is writing about police suicides. But, when he starts researching, he finds out that things are way more complicated than he thought.This novel won the 1997 Anthony Reward and Dilys Award.

The second book on this list is the first novel Michael wrote, “The Black Echo“. In this book, the focus in on Harry Bosch, a cop that’s expert for homicides. But, even though he is an expert, Harry was shocked when he found a dead body at a dam. The reason for that is the fact that Harry knew this guy, he was his close friend. His name was Billy Meadows, and during the Vietnam war, Billy and Harry fought side by side. Because of that, this case was special for Harry, and he will do anything in order to discover who the killer is, even if that means risking his own life. This novel won The Edgar Award.

We will give the bronze medal to the novel “The Last Coyote“, the fourth novel featuring Harry Bosch. In this novel, Harry is going through the worst period in his life. An earthquake destroyed his house, his girlfriend broke up with him, and because of that and all other problems, he started drinking alcohol in large doses. To top all of that, he also gets suspended because he physically attacked his boss. In order to get his badge back, Harry must get confirmation that he can functional normally by his shrink. But, he finds opening up to a stranger pretty hard, even if his career depends on it. But, after a while, Harry realizes why is he so emotionally destroyed. When he was only 11 years old, his mother was killed, and the worst thing is, police never found a murderer. That’s why Harry decides to take things into his own hands and resolve this case once and for all.

When Does The Next Michael Connelly book come out?

The next book by Michael Connelly is Nightshade and will be released on May, 20th 2025. It is the newest book in the Detective Stilwell Series.

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