Michael Connelly Books In Order

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Publication Order of Bosch Universe Books

Publication Order of Harry Bosch Books

Publication Order of Harry Bosch Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Mickey Haller Books

Publication Order of Renée Ballard Books

Publication Order of Jack McEvoy Books

Publication Order of Terry McCaleb Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Children's Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Almost every single one of the fiction novels written by Michael Connelly are contained within the same universe. Above we have listed them within the “Bosch Universe” order and that is the suggested reading order. We have also broken them down separately by character.

Michael Connelly Biography:

Michael Connelly is a best selling American author of crime fiction and detective books. His novels have been translated into 36 languages. He was born and is the second oldest child of a property developer and a homemaker. His mother was interested in crime fiction and introduced Michael to the genre. Michael moved from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Connelly’s interest in crime escalated when one day he saw a mysterious man throw something into the hedge.

He retrieved the object and it turned out to be a gun wrapped in a shirt. He went home and told his father. Connelly was introduced to and impressed by the world of police investigation. He graduated from Saint Thomas Equinas High School and majored in building trade at the University of Florida. With less than adequate grades, he went to see The Long Goodbye, based on Raymond Chandler’s book. The experience further inspired Connelly to be a writer. He read all of Chandler’s works then decided to change his educational focus to education and minor in creative writing. Connelly graduated from the University of Florida in 1980.

He began writing on crime in the Daytona Beach News Journal. He then got a job at the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel. He covered the rampant violence and chaos of the south Florida cocaine wars. In 1984 he married Linda McCaleb, whom he met in college. Connelly was placed as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize interviewing survivors of the plane crash of Delta Flight 191 in 1986. This led to him landing a job at the Los Angeles Times and moved to California in 1987.

Connelly visited the apartments featured in The Long Goodbye with Phillip Marlowe. Eventually he rented an apartment when they became available to write in. In 1992 Connelly sold his first novel The Black Echo to Little, Brown. It features one of Connelly’s recurring characters, Hieronymous Harry Bosch, Los Angeles Police Department Detective. Bosch became an orphan at age 11 when his mother, a prostitute was murdered. Connelly wrote three more novels in the Bosch series while still a reporter.

After completing The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, and The Last Coyote, Connelly chose to write full time and quit his day job. Connelly wrote The Poet featuring a different main character in 1996. The main character was Jack McEvoy, a journalist. In 1998, he published Blood Work, a story about Terry McCaleb, an FBI Agent. It was made into a Hollywood movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as McEvoy in 2002. It costars Jeff Daniels as Buddy Noone and Anjelica Huston as Dr. Bonnie Fox.

Connelly also wrote the Mickey Haller series. Three of the books also feature Jack McEvoy, with one featuring Rachel Walling. The first book in the series, The Lincoln Lawyer, was published in 2005. It follows Mickey Haller, the half brother of Harry Bosch, who is a Los Angeles lawyer. Haller operates in LA, driven around in a Lincoln Towncar by a client paying off dues. Meanwhile, a wealthy real estate agent is accused of attempted murder and assault.

The plot heats up as an innocent jailed man weaves his way into the mystery whose freedom is staked on the detectives solving the case. The Lincoln Lawyer has been nominated for numerous awards. It was adapted into a 2011 film starring Matthew McConaughey and Marisa Tomei. Mickey Haller returns in the 2008 novel The Brass Verdict. Mickey has been healing since the events of the last book and has developed an addiction to painkillers.

He enters the world of law once more when an old associate is murdered. Haller gets all of his acquaintance’s workload, including an alleged double homicide done by Walter Elliott, a mogul. While Haller works on strategy, Walter admits to him that he is connected to the mob and believes they may be responsible both for the murders he is accused of but also killing Mickey’s associate Vincent. As Haller works through the clues, unexpected people come out from the woodwork.

When Walter is found dead, Haller must put the pieces together and solve a crime that won’t quit. Connelly also wrote two episodes of the science fiction drama Level 9. It aired on UPN and was broadcast in 2000. The show dealt with a secret government agency. The series aired thirteen total episodes that were sixty minutes each. Sci Fi Channel later acquired the rerun rights and aired three final episodes that had never been before shown.

A famous moment in Connelly’s career was when Bill Clinton was seen with a copy of his book The Concrete Blonde. Clinton was a big fan and it was arranged for the President and the author to meet in an airport. In 2001 Connelly left California and moved to Tampa Bay, Florida with his wife and daughter. In 2003 another Harry Bosch centric novel called Lost Light. An accompanying cd called Dark Sacred Night: The Music of Harry Bosch with jazz-themed music that the character was said to listen to.

In 2004 The Narrows was published. The Narrows coincided with a dvd release: “Blue Neon Light: Michael Connelly’s Los Angeles”. In addition to novels, Michael Connelly has published multiple short stories. He has written three collections of short stories: Angle of Investigation, Suicide Run, and Mulholland Drive. Michael wrote one non fiction book in 2006 called Crime Beat. It collected journalism from his work at the Los Angeles Times and the Sun-Sentinel.

Michael Connelly appears from time to time on the prime time detective drama Castle, starring Nathan Fillion. He plays one of Fillion’s poker buddies along with James Patterson, Stephen J. Cannell, and Dennis Lehane. From Harry Bosch to Jack McEvoy to Mickey Haller, Connelly has not tired of writing suspenseful, surprising thrillers nor exhausted his interest in crime fiction. His most recent novel has been The Gods of Guilt, the latest in the Mickey Haller series.

Half brother Harry Bosch is rumored to be making an appearance in this novel as well as Harry’s daughter, Maddie. Michael Connelly has sold over 50 million books worldwide and continues to write. He currently lives with his family in Florida.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Michael Connelly

4 Responses to “Michael Connelly”

1. William Patric: 5 years ago

   The problem with the new series female lead, is that she’s not the female lead we were always promised as his fans. He was supposed to promote Maddie to the lead.

   Reply
   • Shinjitsu no Hikari: 1 year ago

     This is three years later, and you don’t seem to understand that Connelly has a logistics problem that he has no choice about working around. Namely that Bosch is 70 years old, and no longer part of any police force; ergo, he can’t carry the series by himself anymore since he’s now relegated to being a sort-of consultant on Renee’s cases.

     Meanwhile, Maddie is in college in pursuit of a psychology degree. If we go by the timeline of her being born sometime after Angels Flight in 1999, that means she’s now no more than 21 y/o, and thus not yet ready to join the LAPD because she still has at least another year of college before she would join the force.

     There’s a hitch though, with that: Maddie is moving away from being a cop like her dad to becoming a counselor of some kind. If she wants to do that for the LAPD, she will need a PhD, and that means another 5 years of grad school. I don’t know if Connelly will go there, but it depends on where he’s taking her as a character.

     Either way, Connelly has needed a character who’s on the LAPD force right now to help transition from Harry to Maddie joining the force. Hence, Renee Ballard. She’ll fill in the gap until Maddie is ready to take over.

     Reply
     • Caleb: 4 weeks ago

       I agree, and I’m also getting the sense that Maddie’s told is going to be from another POV of the criminal justice system. You’ve got Bosch and Ballard on the LEO side, Haller on he defense attorney side, as I think Maddie is going to expand the characters to having a POV from that of a prosecutor and we will see her climb the ranks of the DA office maybe even working along side Haller’s daughter Haylee (whose mom was a prosecutor or Maddie and Haylee could be on opposite sides of Haylee ends up on the defense side like her dad. Now matter what, I can’t wait to see how their characters develop and the paths they take. My biggest fear is when Bosch (who is 70+ yrs old now) eventually kicks the bucket and no longer a character 🙁

       Reply
2. Rachel Kosters Stienstra: 6 years ago

   You really need to proof this document! Too many mistakes for a writer’s site.

   Reply