Michael Connelly's Most Gripping Work Yet!

Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of more than thirty novels and one work of nonfiction. With over eighty million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into forty-five foreign languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today.

 A former newspaper reporter who worked the crime beat at the Los Angeles Times and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Connelly has won numerous awards for his journalism and his fiction.

His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1998 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of his #1 bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, hit theaters worldwide starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. His most recent New York Times bestsellers include Desert Star (2022), The Dark Hours (2021), The Law Of Innocence (2020), Fair Warning (2020), and The Night Fire (2019). Michael is the executive producer of Bosch and Bosch: Legacy, Amazon Studios original drama series based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver and streaming on Amazon Prime/Amazon Freevee. He is the executive producer of The Lincoln Lawyer, streaming on Netflix, starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. He is also the executive producer of the documentary films, "Sound Of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story' and 'Tales Of the American.' He spends his time in California and Florida.

LAPD detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to hunt the brutal killer who is Bosch’s “white whale”—a man responsible for the murder of an entire family.

A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. But after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her own ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild and lead the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.

For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come volunteer as an investigator in her new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale” with the resources of the LAPD behind him.

First priority for Ballard is to clear the unsolved rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. The decades-old case is essential to the councilman who supported re-forming the unit, and who could shutter it again—the victim was his sister. When Ballard gets a “cold hit” connecting the killing to a similar crime, proving that a serial predator has been at work in the city for years, the political pressure has never been higher. To keep momentum going, she has to pull Bosch off his own investigation, the case that is the consummation of his lifelong mission.

The two must put aside old resentments and new tensions to run to ground not one but two dangerous killers who have operated with brash impunity. 

In what may be his most gripping and profoundly moving book yet, Michael Connelly shows once again why he has been dubbed “one of the greatest crime writers of all time” (Ryan Steck, Crimereads).

Michael Connelly~ One of the Most Successful Writers Working Today!

Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly is the bestselling author of over thirty novels and one work of nonfiction. With over eighty million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into forty-five foreign languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today.

Connelly was a former newspaper reporter who worked the crime beat at the Los Angeles Times and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his fiction.

His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1998 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of his #1 bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, hit theaters worldwide starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. 

His most recent New York Times bestsellers include The Law Of Innocence, Fair Warning, The Night Fire, Dark Sacred Night, Two Kinds Of Truth, and The Late Show.

Michael is the executive producer of Bosch, an Amazon Studios original drama series based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver and streaming on Amazon Prime. He is also the executive producer of the documentary films, "Sound Of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story' and 'Tales Of the American.' He spends his time in California and Florida.

Just released, in April this year, The #1 New York Times–bestselling author brings you into the world of the LAPD’s Harry Bosch, and the history that shaped him with his book
Hieronymus Bosch: A Mysterious Profile .

In this short work, Michael Connelly delves into the origins of his famed police detective,—how he faced down the horrors of his childhood (a background story that was based on the life of another renowned crime writer); his past as a tunnel rat in Vietnam; and why jazz is his soundtrack. Connelly also shares the story of how his character Hieronymus Bosch came to be named after a fifteenth-century Flemish painter, and how his own youthful experiences of fear led to his literary creation. Those who have followed the cases of this tough cop more interested in justice than ambition will find much to enjoy and to ponder in this behind-the-scenes account.

The Chicago Tribune said,  “No writer exploits Los Angeles—its geography, its historical power wars, its celebrity culture, its lore—as compellingly as Connelly.”

BANG OUT OF THE GATE With Your Writing

By Craig Faustus Buck

Bang out of the gate.  Or else.

Are you one of those readers who scan the first paragraph of a book and puts it down if it doesn't grab you?  I am.  If I'm feeling ornery, I'll give the author only one line to snag me.  So, as a writer, I make a point of trying to write openings that pop in order to avoid losing those readers who are as quick to judge as I. 

A lot of writers like to set the scene before diving into a story, but most readers aren't interested in what a character feels or how a setting looks unless they're already invested in that character or wonder about that setting.  As Elmore Leonard famously advised, "Never open a book with weather." 

I write noir.  Perhaps cozy, romance or "literature" readers have more patience than my readers, but hardboiled fans want to be grabbed by the throat and hurled into a story.  One way to do this is with a twist. 

A twisted open implies right up front, that more surprises are in store.  I like that in a story. Sue Grafton used the device to launch an empire.  Here's how she opened A is for Alibi: "My name is Kinsey Milhone.  I'm a private investigator, licensed by the state of California.  I'm thirty-two years old, twice divorced, no kids.  The day before yesterday I killed someone and the fact weighs heavily on my mind."

She lulls you with a straightforward description of a single-divorced detective, then smacks you awake with the unexpected.

Another opening tactic is the suggestive hook.  In the first paragraph of my first novel, Go Down Hard I use an image: "I look through the spyhole.  Gloria has a bottle of gin in her hand and a pair of cuffs hanging from her belt loop.  A deadly combination."

It's a soft open for a noir thriller, but doesn't Gloria pique your interest?   

Michael Connelly opened The Poet with a suggestive concept: "Death is my beat.  I make my living from it." 

How can you put that book down before you've satisfied your curiosity about the narrator?  Make readers wonder and you buy time to hook them on your story.

These are just two of a multitude of possible opening tactics, but I've run out of space.  Bottom line: hit 'em fast and hard and where they least expect it.

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Craig Faustus Buck is an L.A.-based journalist, nonfiction book author, TV writer-producer, screenwriter, short-story writer and novelist.  Among his six nonfiction books, two were #1 NYT bestsellers.  He wrote a short film that was nominated for an Oscar.  He was one of the writers on the seminal miniseries V: The Final Battle. His first noir mystery novel, Go Down Hard, will be published May 2015 by Brash Books and was first runner up for the Claymore Award at Killer Nashville.  His indie feature, Smuggling for Gandhi, is currently in preproduction.  His novella, Psycho Logic was published May 1 by Stark Raving Group and his short story, Dead End, the novella's prequel, is a current Anthony Award nominee.  http://craigfaustusbuck.com

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