Welcome to The Michael Connelly Project
After rereading almost all of Michael Connelly’s work in the past year, I’m launching this series to show he is one of the great writers in the world today.
Not just a great crime writer — a great writer of literature.
Following the publication of The Black Box, the sixteenth novel in the Harry Bosch series, reviewer Patrick Anderson wrote in the Washington Post that Michael Connelly had produced “the finest crime series written by an American.” It was lofty praise, acclaim that any crime writer would delight in, and typical of the critical response to Connelly’s work, as seen in the blurbs on any of his forty novels.
The Daily Mail in London has called him “one of the world’s greatest crime writers”, according to the back cover of Two Kinds of Truth. The New Yorker, quoted in the blurb on Lost Light, says: “Michael Connelly is the most talented of crime writers.” On The Burning Room, the Chicago Tribune describes Bosch as “one of the most popular and enduring figures in American crime fiction.”
A quick online search shows The New York Times has called Connelly “one of the best mystery writers in the world” while Stephen King said he is “one of the great crime writers of our time.”
Connelly sits at the pinnacle. But invariably, the critic qualifies the praise by restricting Connelly to the crime fiction genre. Very occasionally, critics broaden their reach. The Cleveland Plain Dealer once called Connelly “one of America’s finest writers”.
I believe – and the blogs in this series will demonstrate – that Michael Connelly is simply one of the great novelists alive today. That statement elicits two questions: Why should he be considered a contemporary titan? And why is it unfair to judge him strictly as a crime writer?
Let’s look at the second question. Fact is, the literati don’t take crime fiction seriously. To quote Dorothy Sayers, it is “the literature of escape” rather than the “the literature of expression.” It’s considered a cheap thrill, not serious stuff. If the world of literature were pro football, crime fiction would be the CFL.
For proof check out the new Greatest Books of All Time website, which analyzes the results of more than three hundred lists of the world’s greatest books. The website – which I blogged about recently – has a databank of more than 10,000 books, ranking them based on how many times and how strongly they were ranked on credible lists of great literature.
Mr. Connelly did not fare well. His top-rated book was The Lincoln Lawyer, which came in at No. 3,652. The Last Coyote – which I rate as one of the best Bosch books – placed 4,731. And The Poet – the novel that Stephen King said would prove to be a classic one day – was listed at 11,331. (King didn’t say when.)
One thing I will admit, is that it’s hard to cite a Michael Connelly novel as his masterpiece. He doesn’t have a Maltese Falcon or a Talented Mr. Ripley. But his consistency in producing forty splendid novels is astonishing, and it’s one reason I believe he’s such an important novelist.
Taken as a whole, Connelly has produced a body of work that examines the American justice system in molecular detail, rarely shying away from its ugly side. The justice system is arguably the most incendiary touchpoint of modern American life, and there is no more controversial institution in the American justice system than the Los Angeles Police Department. Through decades of research, Connelly has delved into the procedures, technology, culture, corruption, racism, sexism and, yes, the heroics of the LAPD. I don’t believe any writer has shone such an exacting lens on such an important institution. Generations of social historians will consult Connelly’s fiction to understand the inner workings of the police force.
While Connelly is peerless in writing police procedure, he has also mastered courtroom drama, private eye stories, heist novels, and psychological thrillers involving crime reporters. He’s not known as a stylist, but he writes with such authority that no one can question his descriptions of how cops operate. The foundation of his style is his research, and this is the element that brings his books to life.
Finally, he’s created Harry Bosch, who I’d rank as the greatest fictional cop to come along in 172 years of fictional cops. (The first was Inspector Bucket, who showed up in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House in 1852.) Bosch is fascinating and endearing, and we’ve seen him from every angle due to professional evaluations, psychological analysis, press reports, courtroom testimony, and the trials and stresses of dozens of books.
These are lofty claims, and I’ve done little to back them up. I promise to do so in the ensuing blogs. For the next year or so, I plan to post regular blogs examining different aspects of Connelly’s work. I’ve been researching this since the beginning of the year, and so they will be well informed. As the author of The Haight Mystery Series, I also believe I bring a crime writer’s understanding of the craft, and an appreciation for the rigorous rules of writing mystery novels.
On a personal note, I am enjoying this new literary pursuit. This is my chance to probe Connelly’s work as thoroughly as I can. I’ve only done something comparable to this once before: when I was researching my 2006 book Hemingway on the China Front, I read everything I could find on Hemingway – all his novels, short stories, articles, non-fiction and the letters that had been published up to that time. I read five full biographies and dozens of other books about him. I’ve read all of Connelly’s books, and as many of his articles as I can find. The big difference is that Hemingway was a well-trod street – I believe there’s been more biographical material written about Hemingway than any author who ever lived. Connelly, on the other hand, is an unblazed trail.
As you can tell, I’m a Michael Connelly fan, but I aim to be objective in my observations and critical when necessary. Above all, I aim to make these columns fun. To ensure you don’t miss any, sign up for my email list here. As a bonus, I’ll send you a novella ebook titled The Ashbury Hideaway. It’s the prequel to The Haight Mystery Series. A short and fun read, it will give you a feel for my series.
Michael Connelly fans are a devoted bunch, so I hope to provoke some lively discussions on social media.
Hi, I’m Peter Moreira...
Author of The Haight Mystery Series, and I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. If you want to receive my blogs regularly, please sign up for the mailing list at my website by clicking here. As well as regular blogs about Michael Connelly and other crime fiction writers, you’ll receive The Ashbury Hideaway, a free novella in ebook format. In this prequel to The Haight Mystery Series, Jimmy Spracklin’s teenage daughter runs away to Haight-Ashbury during the Summer of Love, and he has to find her before she disappears for good.
The Haight Mystery Series is set in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in the late 1960s. Each book is a whodunnit with hippies. Described as ‘Gritty and Groovy” (Tampa Bay author George L. Fleming) and “Fabulous” (Pamela Callow, author of the Kate Lange series), the Haight books chronicle the investigations of SFPD Lieutenant Jimmy Spracklin into homicides in the hippie enclave. If you’re nostalgic for the 1960s, fond of San Francisco or just love great page-turners with strong characters, check out The Ashbury Hideaway. I hope you’ll enjoy the novella enough to move on to the five novels (so far) in the series.
If you do read them, let me know what you think. I love hearing from my readers.
