Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the
Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler,
had written.
After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel,
The Black Echo, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly followed up with three more Bosch books,
The Black Ice,
The Concrete Blonde, and
The Last Coyote, before publishing
The Poet in 1996—a thriller with a newspaper reporter as a protagonist. In 1997, he went back to Bosch with
Trunk Music, and in 1998 another non-series thriller,
Blood Work, was published. It was inspired in part by a friend's receiving a heart transplant and the attendant "survivor's guilt" the friend experienced, knowing that someone died in order that he have the chance to live. Connelly had been interested and fascinated by those same feelings as expressed by the survivors of the plane crash he wrote about years before. The movie adaptation of
Blood Work was released in 2002, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.
Connelly's next book,
Angels Flight, was released in 1999 and was another entry in the Harry Bosch series. The non-series novel
Void Moon was released in 2000 and introduced a new character, Cassie Black, a high-stakes Las Vegas thief. His 2001 release,
A Darkness More Than Night, united Harry Bosch with Terry McCaleb from
Blood Work, and was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the
Los Angeles Times.
In 2002, Connelly released two novels. The first, the Harry Bosch book
City Of Bones, was named a Notable Book of the Year by the
New York Times. The second release was a stand-alone thriller,
Chasing The Dime, which was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the
Los Angeles Times.
Lost Light was published in 2003 and named one of the Best Books of 2003 by the
Los Angeles Times. It is another in the Harry Bosch series but the first written in first person. To celebrate its release, Michael produced the limited edition jazz CD,
Dark Sacred Night, The Music Of Harry Bosch. This CD is a compilation of the jazz music mentioned in the Bosch novels and was given away to his readers on Michael's 2003 book tour.
Connelly's 2004 novel,
The Narrows, is the sequel to
The Poet. It was named one of the Best Books of 2004 by the
Los Angeles Times. To accompany this Harry Bosch novel, Little, Brown and Company Publishers released a limited edition DVD,
Blue Neon Night: Michael Connelly's Los Angeles. In this film, Michael Connelly provides an insider's tour of the places that give his stories and characters their spark and texture.
His 11th Harry Bosch novel,
The Closers, was published in May 2005, and debuted at #1 on the
New York Times bestseller list.
The Lincoln Lawyer, Connelly's first-ever legal thriller and his 16th novel, was published in October 2005 and also debuted at #1 on the
New York Times bestseller list. This book introduced Mickey Haller, a Los Angeles defense attorney who works out of the back seat of his Lincoln Town Car. The movie adaptation, starring Matthew McConaughey as Haller, will be coming out on March 18, 2011. This will be the second film adapted from a Connelly novel.
Crime Beat, a non-fiction collection of crime stories from Michael's days as a journalist, was released in 2006, as was the Harry Bosch novel,
Echo Park, released in October 2006.
The Overlook, Michael's 18th novel, was originally serialized in the
New York Times Magazine. This Harry Bosch story was published as a book with additional material in May 2007.
Michael's 19th novel,
The Brass Verdict, was released in October 2008, and debuted at #1 on the
New York Times bestseller list. It introduces Lincoln lawyer Mickey Haller to LAPD Detective Harry Bosch in a fast-paced legal thriller. Michael's 20th novel,
The Scarecrow, was first released in May 2009, and reunites reporter Jack McEvoy and FBI Agent Rachel Walling for the first time since
The Poet. It too debuted at #1 on the
New York Times bestseller list. Michael released a second book in 2009, the 15th Harry Bosch novel,
Nine Dragons. In this story, Bosch goes to Hong Kong to find his missing daughter. It is the most personal Bosch story since
The Last Coyote.
In October 2010, The Reversal was released and debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. This book has Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch working together on the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder.
What's coming next from Connelly? The Fifth Witness, a Mickey Haller novel, will be released in April 2011.
Connelly's books have been translated in 35 languages and have won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38 Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), Premio Bancarella Award (Italy), and the Pepe Carvalho award (Spain) .
Michael was the President of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his literary work, Michael was one of the creators, writers, and consulting producers of
Level 9, a TV show about a task force fighting cyber crime, that ran on UPN in the Fall of 2000.
Michael lives with his family in Florida.
I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing. 
