Michael Connelly and the Harry Bosch series (mini-review)

In between all these books (see the previous posts from this week) I’ve read through Michael Connelly’s excellent Harry Bosch series about the worn out, chain-smoking, slightly alcoholic LA police detective. Some of the books are brilliant and among some of the best crime fiction ever written (yes, ever written!), but unfortunately not all books in the series are that great. Furthermore you might have to read them all in connection in order to understand and appreciate some of the finer details and subplots.

Here is a short run down of all the books in chronological order including Connelly’s out-of-series books:

1. The Black Echo Superb introduction to Harry Bosch. The best thing about this book is that you as the reader is thrown right into the action and have to figure out what the heck is going on. Essential.
2. The Black Ice After the great debut this novel was a real letdown. The story is thin and the characters hollow. Can be skipped if pressed for time.
3. The Concrete Blonde A fairly standard run of the mill story but that doesn?t mean it?s bad. Can also be skipped
4. The Last Coyote Again standard material for Harry Bosch novel. Better than The Concrete Blond but not as good as The Black Echo.
5. The Poet The first out-of-series book by Connelly and the first book written in first person. A really gritty and ugly story about a journalist chasing down a sadistic serial killer. Essential reading if you want to understand the entire Bosch universe.
6. Trunk Music . Bosch is back and running head on with the Las Vegas mafia in this book. Great read.
7. Blood Work Yes, the book that became the mediocre movie with Clint Eastwood (something that Harry Bosch makes fun on in latter novels). Very readable although some of the elements of the main plot are a bit hard to accept as they just seem too far fetched. Out of series, can be skipped if you wanna stay on track with only the Bosch novels.
8. Angles Flight Again back to Bosch. And again a superb written story about police brutality and civil rights lawyers in the wake of the Rodney King trial. Shows the (very) ugly face of the police and never make any attempts to apologize for it or sugar-coat it. Essential.
9. Void Moon . Out of series. First Connelly novel with a female lead. Casey Black is a master thief in Las Vegas by gets her work cut out for her when she steals from the wrong persons. Classic setup, superb execution by the author.
10. A Darkness More Than Night . This time Harry Bosch is the suspect. Great read although yes figure out who the real killer is almost at the beginning which is very rare for Connelly?s novels. Can be skipped.
11. Chasing the Dime Stupid out-of-series story about a computer scientist that tries to find out what happed to a call girl which phone number is mistakenly switched out with his. Avoid.
12. City of Bones . Harry has to backtrack a crime committed decades ago when a skeleton of a by is uncovered in the hills overlooking Hollywood. Essential read.
13. Lost Light To date the best Harry Bosch novel. The setting, the dialogue and the inner struggles of Bosch is just so finely tuned in this novel that even if you don?t like crime novels you?ll appreciate this one. Essential.
14. The Narrows . The direct sequel to Blood Work but this time with Harry Bosch in the lead role. A little far fetch from the get go and never really gets around to answering all the questions is poses. Can easily be skipped.
15. The Closers . Harry joins the special Open-Unresolved Unit aka The Closers to try and solve some of the old files that has for various reasons been collecting dust in the LA Police department. Great read.
16. The Lincoln Lawyer Out-of series first person story about a defense lawyer with a seemingly slam-dunk case turned absolute nightmare.
17. Echo Park . Harry Bosch is back and gets tangled into a confession of a captured serial killer that claims to be the assailant in one of Harry?s old cases. But not everything is as it seems.