Another day, another genius writer. A writer whose work was deemed worthy of being directed by the legendary Clint Eastwood.
The Creator of Harry Bosch, the inspiration behind Amazon Studios’ original drama series, Bosch.
Yes! I’m talking about Michael Connelly, and I have all his books in order of publication. I’m talking about all his book series, novellas, short stories, children’s books, and nonfiction.
And it’s quite a list, with over 30 novels and a couple of nonfiction books.
But first, let’s get to know the man behind the bestselling books.
Let’s get started.
Who is Michael Connelly?
Michael Joseph Connelly was born in Philadelphia on July 21, 1956. When he was 12, his family moved to Florida, and that’s where Connelly grew up.
He attended the University of Florida and majored in journalism and minored in creative writing. As fate would have it, one of Connelly’s teachers was the late Harry Crews, a raw writer whose stories often had violent, grotesque characters and were set in the Deep South.
Michael Connelly graduated in 1980 and began his career as a journalist, reporting on crime for the Los Angeles Times. He then turned to writing full-time, publishing his first book, The Black Echo, in 1992.
The novel won Connelly the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award in the ‘Best First Novel’ category.
Since then, he has published dozens of novels, including the Harry Bosch series, and co-produced the Bosch TV series.
Top 3 Michael Connelly Books to Read
Here are our 3 top picks:
- The Lincoln Lawyer (Mickey Haller Book 1)
- The Poet: A Novel (Jack McEvoy Book 1)
- The Last Coyote (A Harry Bosch Novel Book 4)
Michael Connelly’s Books In Order of Publishing
All of Bosch’s Books in Publication Order
- The Black Echo (1992)
- The Black Ice (1993)
- The Concrete Blonde (1994)
- The Last Coyote (1995)
- The Poet (1996)
- Trunk Music (1997)
- Blood Work (1998)
- Angels Flight (1999)
- Void Moon (1999)
- A Darkness More Than Night (2000)
- City of Bones (2002)
- Lost Light (2003)
- The Narrows (2004)
- The Closers (2005)
- The Lincoln Lawyer (2005)
- Echo Park (2006)
- The Overlook (2007)
- The Brass Verdict (2008)
- The Scarecrow (2009)
- Nine Dragons (2009)
- Blue on Black (2010)
- The Reversal (2010)
- Angle of Investigation (2011)
- The Fifth Witness (2011)
- Suicide Run (2011)
- The Drop (2011)
- The Black Box (2012)
- The Gods of Guilt (2013)
- Switchblade (2014)
- The Burning Room (2014)
- The Crossing (2015)
- The Wrong Side of Goodbye (2016)
- The Late Show (2017)
- Two Kinds of Truth (2017)
- Dark Sacred Night (2018)
- The Night Fire (2019)
- Fair Warning (2020)
- The Law of Innocence (2020)
- The Dark Hours (2021)
Harry Bosch Books in Publication Order
- The Black Echo (1992)
- The Black Ice (1993)
- The Concrete Blonde (1994)
- The Last Coyote (1995)
- Trunk Music (1997)
- Angels Flight (1999)
- A Darkness More Than Night (2000)
- City of Bones (2002)
- Lost Light (2003)
- The Narrows (2004)
- The Closers (2005)
- Echo Park (2006)
- The Overlook (2007)
- Nine Dragons (2009)
- The Drop (2011)
- The Black Box (2012)
- Switchblade (2014)
- The Burning Room (2014)
- The Crossing (2015)
- The Wrong Side of Goodbye (2016)
- Two Kinds of Truth (2017)
- Dark Sacred Night (2018)
- The Night Fire (2019)
- The Dark Hours (2021)
Harry Bosch Short Stories/Novellas in Publication Order
Mickey Haller Books in Publication Order
- The Lincoln Lawyer (2005)
- The Brass Verdict (2008)
- The Reversal (2010)
- The Fifth Witness (2011)
- The Gods of Guilt (2013)
- The Law of Innocence (2020)
Renée Ballard Books in Publication Order
- The Late Show (2017)
- Dark Sacred Night (2018)
- The Night Fire (2019)
- The Dark Hours (2021)
- Desert Star (2022)
Jack McEvoy Books in Publication Order
Terry McCaleb Books in Publication Order
Standalone Novels
Short Stories/Novellas in Publication Order
Short Story Collections in Publication Order
Children’s Books in Publication Order
Non-Fiction Books in Publication Order
Mysterious Profiles Books in Publication Order
Anthologies in Publication Order
- Measures of Poison (2002)
- In the Shadow of the Master (2003)
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2003 (2003)
- Murder in Vegas: New Crime Tales of Gambling and Desperation (2005)
- The Penguin Book of Crime Stories (2007)
- Mystery Writers of America Presents The Blue Religion (2008)
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2008 (2008)
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2009 (2009)
- Hook, Line & Sinister (2010)
- The Rich and the Dead (2011)
- Mystery Writers of America Presents Vengeance (2012)
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2013 (2013)
- FaceOff (2014)
- In the Company of Sherlock Holmes (2014)
- The Best American Mystery Stories 2015 (2015)
- The Highway Kind (2016)
- In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper (2016)
- Alive in Shape and Color (2017)
- The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2022 (2022)
Best 5 Michael Connelly Books
1. The Lincoln Lawyer (Mickey Haller Book 1)
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly is one of many of Michael Connelly’s crime novels, first published on October 3rd, 2005.
The Lincoln Lawyer, which is the first installment of the Lincoln Lawyer series, introduces Mickey Haller. Haller is a criminal defense lawyer—Harry Bosch’s half-brother—who travels from courthouse to courthouse defending clients of every type.
Haller thinks he’s got a simple case when he lands a high-paying client, a Beverly Hills playboy who was arrested for attacking a woman. However, Mickey soon finds out that the case has “brought him face-to-face with evil as pure as a flame.”
2. The Poet: A Novel (Jack McEvoy Book 1)
Published in 1996, The Poet is Michael Connelly’s fifth novel, and it’s the first not to feature Bosch.
Instead, it introduces a crime reporter, Jack McEvoy (also the story’s narrator).
This story takes place in Colorado, where Jack McEvoy works for the newspaper “Rocky Mountain News.” He has an identical twin brother named Sean, who is also a police officer. When Sean commits suicide, Jack begins investigating his death.
He discovers that his brother’s death is linked to three other murders, which were made to look like suicides.
This discovery, and the continued investigation, led McEvoy right into the killer’s den and brought him face-to-face with death.
3. The Last Coyote (A Harry Bosch Novel Book 4)
Harry Bosch’s life is in disarray. His house has been condemned, his partner has bailed on him, he’s turned to the bottle, and he has been indefinitely suspended for attacking his commanding officer.
While on suspension, Bosch decides to investigate a cold case from 1961: the gruesome murder of a prostitute who also happens to be Harry’s mother.
As Harry starts to dig deep, he discovers that someone wants to keep the truth from emerging. He also discovers this individual wields some power and is… very deadly.
4. The Black Echo (A Harry Bosch Novel, 1)
The story follows Harry Bosch, a Vietnam veteran who’s become an L.A. police detective working in the Robbery-Homicide Division.
However, Bosch is demoted after he kills the main suspect in a case he’s working on.
When a fellow Vietnam “tunnel rat,” Billy Meadows, is killed, Bosch decides to work on the case. He finds out that the murder may be linked to a bank robbery that involves the use of tunnels.
Harry partners with the FBI to catch the robbers, who he believes were not just after the money.
5. Concrete Blonde (A Harry Bosch Novel, 3)
Just when Detective Harry Bosch thought he had caught and killed “the Dollmaker,” a serial killer stalking Los Angeles and murdering females, he is confronted with another body, killed in the same fashion.
Now, it dawns on him that not only has he killed the wrong man, but he also needs to go on another hunt for the LA serial killer who paints his victims with cosmetics.
Will he be fast enough to catch the killer before he claims another victim?
Michael Connelly FAQs
How many books has Michael Connelly written?
Connelly has written over 40 books, including 37 novels and two non-fiction books. He has sold over 75 million copies of his books worldwide.
Is Harry Bosch based on anyone in particular?
Yes and no. He is based on several real cops that Connelly knew when he worked as a crime reporter. He is also based on many fictional characters, including Philip Marlowe, Dirty Harry Callahan, and Lew Archer.
Why are Jerry Solomon and Detective Glanville called Crate and Barrel on Bosch?
The two are referred to as “Crate and Barrel” because of their widening dimensions.
Which of his books is Michael Connelly’s favorite?
He doesn’t have one favorite. He said that he liked all of them. He also says that there are unique reasons for liking each book. For example, he likes The Concrete Blonde because of the plot and tension and likes The Last Coyote and Angels Flight because of the character resonance in those stories.
Do the books in Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch series have to be read in order?
Michael Connelly’s books are—kind of—”standalone books.” However, some things or events spill over into other books in the series. So, although it’s okay to read them as standalones, it might be more interesting to read them in order—from the first book to the last.
What time of day does Michael Connelly like to work?
Michael Connelly prefers to work in the morning and at night, and he reserves the afternoon for busy work. But during the weekends, he tries to get a little bit of work done in the mornings and does no work-related stuff during the rest of the day.
Are Michael Connelly’s plots inspired by current events?
Michael Connelly says he always uses a pint of truth in his stories. He uses real-life incidents, some of which he covered when he was a reporter and others from his youth when he worked at several beachfront hotels.
He gives the example of Blood Work, a story that was based on his friend who had a heart transplant. Connelly—with his friend’s permission—took some things out of his friend’s experience and stitched a thrilling story from those patches.
What are Michael Connelly’s favorite and least favorite things about being a writer?
Michael Connelly’s least favorite thing “is knowing that there is no one to blame but yourself when it’s not going well.” He believes that that fact alone makes writing a difficult profession.
In his own words, the best thing about being a writer is “being able to do what you want to do — and just having to walk down the hallway to do it.”
What is Connelly’s advice on finding an agent or publisher or getting published?
Connelly says there is a lot you can do and there’s no fixed formula. He advises writers to consider joining the Mystery Writers of America or a similar establishment. He believes that such institutions are there for the sole purpose of helping writers. He backs it up by saying that such institutions offer annual symposiums and conferences and send essential guides on topics such as getting published, finding an agent, and others.
What is Michael Connelly’s best advice for a writer?
Connelly’s advice to other writers is to write every day. It doesn’t matter how many lines you write, even a small paragraph is enough.
Final Words on Michael Connelly’s Books in Order
Michael Connelly has written over 40 books since his debut novel, The Black Echo, was published in 1992.
He has won numerous awards for his novels, including the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award and a lifetime achievement award from Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts.
Connelly’s books are known for their intricate plots and dark characters. He is often called the master of crime fiction.
Even if you’re a moviephile, you will enjoy some of Michael Connelly’s novels that have been adapted for the screen, including Bosch and The Lincoln Lawyer.
