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Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers
Before Michael Connelly became a novelist, he was a crime reporter, covering the detectives who worked the homicide beat. In these vivid, hard-hitting pieces, Connelly leads the reader past the yellow police tape as he follows the investigators, the victims, their families and friends--and of, course, the killers--to tell the real stories of murder and its aftermath.
384 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2004
About the author
Michael Connelly
580 books37.1k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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 has followed that up with over 30 more novels.
Over eighty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and he has been translated into forty-five foreign languages. He has 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 is one of the producers and writers of the TV show, “Bosch,” which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Michael lives with his family in Los Angeles and Tampa, Florida.
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 has followed that up with over 30 more novels.
Over eighty million copies of Connelly’s books have sold worldwide and he has been translated into forty-five foreign languages. He has 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 is one of the producers and writers of the TV show, “Bosch,” which is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Michael lives with his family in Los Angeles and Tampa, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 516 reviews
April 10, 2015
Sometimes, to appreciate what a book is, it is necessary to be aware of what it is not. Crime Beat is not a collection of true crime essays by a well-known and respected veteran novelist, winner of every prize in the crime writing field. Crime Beat is a heterogeneous collection of old newspaper pieces written by a reporter in his early 30's who has just won a Pulitzer Prize.
"Just-the-Facts-Ma'am" reporting is hard to do, and young Connelly shows his mastery of it in each piece included here. He writes clearly and plainly, ordering his words so that we can visualize every thing he describes and infer many things he chooses not to, like the bone-weariness of seasoned detectives and the occasional vigilante-style violence of cops on the street. In each case, he manages to tell a good story without lapsing into sentimentality or cynicism.
Anybody on the hunt for polished essays, however, will be disappointed. These are pieces written for a deadline by a reporter anxious to introduce a general audience to an evolving story and then keep them updated about its continually changing landscape. Four or five pieces in a row may tell the same tale, omitting some facts and adding others, as the story begins to take shape. The hunter of polished essays may find this repetition infuriating, but I thought this aspect of the book one of its most interesting. I enjoyed this glimpse of a good reporter at work, keeping his public informed.
I definitely recommend this book. It's not great literature, but it is great reporting. And--I almost forgot--it is introduced by a fine, thoughtful essay by that veteran crime novelist that some of you readers are looking for.
January 29, 2026
“The best things that I have seen and taken into my imagination and then seeded into my fiction came to me in moments.”
What better way to understand a favorite author than to return to the moments that shaped him?
This book offers a compelling look at Michael Connelly’s origins—not as a novelist, but as a crime reporter. His time on the crime beat is clearly the foundation of everything that followed, and Connelly makes a convincing case that “there could not have been the novelist without there first being the reporter.” That grounding in real cases, real people, and real consequences gives his fiction its unmistakable authenticity.
Organized into sections—the cops, the killers, and the cases—the book traces how actual experiences and individuals were transformed into the characters readers would later come to know so well, including Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. Even Connelly’s villains are rooted in truth, shaped by the criminals he once reported on.
The stories here are poignant, empathetic, unsettling, and often heartbreaking, revealing a deep respect for those who pursue justice under difficult circumstances.
For longtime fans, this feels like a homage to Connelly’s career and creative evolution. For newcomers, it serves as a thoughtful introduction to how he sees the world and constructs a story—how observation becomes imagination, and imagination becomes fiction.
That said, the book occasionally reads more like a collected journalistic reflection than a fully cohesive narrative. Readers looking for the narrative drive of a Connelly novel may find this more reflective than gripping.
Still, even twenty years on (the book was published in 2006), the insights remain valuable. Nothing here feels wasted—true to Connelly’s own words, ‘all experience is poured into the creative blender.’ This may not be essential reading for every reader, but for those interested in the craft behind the crime fiction, it is a rewarding and illuminating look at the ‘crime beat’ reporter who became the novelist.
What better way to understand a favorite author than to return to the moments that shaped him?
This book offers a compelling look at Michael Connelly’s origins—not as a novelist, but as a crime reporter. His time on the crime beat is clearly the foundation of everything that followed, and Connelly makes a convincing case that “there could not have been the novelist without there first being the reporter.” That grounding in real cases, real people, and real consequences gives his fiction its unmistakable authenticity.
Organized into sections—the cops, the killers, and the cases—the book traces how actual experiences and individuals were transformed into the characters readers would later come to know so well, including Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. Even Connelly’s villains are rooted in truth, shaped by the criminals he once reported on.
The stories here are poignant, empathetic, unsettling, and often heartbreaking, revealing a deep respect for those who pursue justice under difficult circumstances.
For longtime fans, this feels like a homage to Connelly’s career and creative evolution. For newcomers, it serves as a thoughtful introduction to how he sees the world and constructs a story—how observation becomes imagination, and imagination becomes fiction.
That said, the book occasionally reads more like a collected journalistic reflection than a fully cohesive narrative. Readers looking for the narrative drive of a Connelly novel may find this more reflective than gripping.
Still, even twenty years on (the book was published in 2006), the insights remain valuable. Nothing here feels wasted—true to Connelly’s own words, ‘all experience is poured into the creative blender.’ This may not be essential reading for every reader, but for those interested in the craft behind the crime fiction, it is a rewarding and illuminating look at the ‘crime beat’ reporter who became the novelist.
March 9, 2017
Ok read! Good storyline with some interesting plotlines but the writing could have been better (paperback!) huge Connelly fan!
May 25, 2020
I know that I am one of many who thoroughly enjoys the work of Michael Connelly, with his gritty stories of Harry Bosch and others working on solving (or defending, sometimes even reporting) crimes that occur throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Some may know that Connelly began his career as a crime beat reporter, amassing much of the story ideas he would later make popular through the cases on which he reported. This book is a collection of reports, both backgrounds and follow-ups, that Connelly penned during his reporting career. With an introduction that gives the reader the insight into how Connelly witnessed his first criminal at the age of sixteen and the subsequent investigation made him want to report on crimes, the author paints a picture of how this type of writing soon got into his blood and helped him to craft the descriptions that pull readers into the stories. With the collection divided into three parts, the reader can see reports that feature the police, the criminals, and the unknown victims. Seeing the cases develop and those who worked hard to catch the perpetrators, Connelly shines a light on those with the badges and guns, though he does not only present the positive side of those in blue. The reader can see Connelly’s depiction of the criminals as well, with backstories on their lives and what might have led them to the life of crime before they were caught, or eluded capture and disappeared. The final section seeks to focus the attention the victim who was left without a clear identity, be it because they fell through the cracks of the system or the brutality they faced left them unrecognisable at the time of initial reporting. With some wonderful tie-ins to cases that Harry Bosch would eventually face (note, the book came long before anyone ever heard of Renee Ballard), Connelly shows his tireless fans that fact and fiction do something intertwine and make for entertaining reading. Recommended to those who love true crime seen through the eyes of the roving reporter, as well as the reader who has come to love the writing of Michael Connelly over the years.
While I am not an avid reader of true crime novels, I like to see where authors get their ideas. Many pull on experiences from their past (or current) professions and blur the lines effectively to keep things working well for their reading public while offering a degree of anonymity and keeping lawsuits at bay. While I have been a longtime fan of Connelly’s work (all series), it is interesting to see where some of the ideas emerged. I have watched a few seasons of the Amazon Prime show, Bosch, which pulls its ideas from the books, but this was even more interesting, as I could see from where the initial germination of writing ideas eventually blossomed. The cases are all over the place, from robberies to murder, kidnapping to assaults. All included both sides of the law, as well as a victim, pulling the reader into the middle, much like Connelly must have been as he used his access to case files and the like. The curious reader will see just how detailed things can get when a reporter has earned the trust of the police, though also kept his independence and is able to point out foibles in the system. Connelly writes in such a way that the reader cannot help but want to know more, seeking to eke out as many details as possible. While some attentive readers will see the parallels between the cases and the eventual books, anyone can enjoy this, with Connelly’s easy to digest prose and attention to detail. Well worth my time as I await another Michael Connelly publication, which just so happens to have a reporter as the protagonist!
Kudos, Mr. Connelly, for all your hard work on the beat, which you have been able to turn into a stellar collection of novels that have stood the test of time.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
While I am not an avid reader of true crime novels, I like to see where authors get their ideas. Many pull on experiences from their past (or current) professions and blur the lines effectively to keep things working well for their reading public while offering a degree of anonymity and keeping lawsuits at bay. While I have been a longtime fan of Connelly’s work (all series), it is interesting to see where some of the ideas emerged. I have watched a few seasons of the Amazon Prime show, Bosch, which pulls its ideas from the books, but this was even more interesting, as I could see from where the initial germination of writing ideas eventually blossomed. The cases are all over the place, from robberies to murder, kidnapping to assaults. All included both sides of the law, as well as a victim, pulling the reader into the middle, much like Connelly must have been as he used his access to case files and the like. The curious reader will see just how detailed things can get when a reporter has earned the trust of the police, though also kept his independence and is able to point out foibles in the system. Connelly writes in such a way that the reader cannot help but want to know more, seeking to eke out as many details as possible. While some attentive readers will see the parallels between the cases and the eventual books, anyone can enjoy this, with Connelly’s easy to digest prose and attention to detail. Well worth my time as I await another Michael Connelly publication, which just so happens to have a reporter as the protagonist!
Kudos, Mr. Connelly, for all your hard work on the beat, which you have been able to turn into a stellar collection of novels that have stood the test of time.
Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/
A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
August 15, 2026
I love it when authors who typically write fiction decide to write nonfiction. John Grisham, James Patterson, and Michael Connelly have all done this.
Michael Connelly was a crime beat reporter before he became a masterful author. This book provides insights into how he created characters, scenes, and small, memorable details for his books.
This book was informative but not gripping in the way his fiction books grab me.
Michael Connelly was a crime beat reporter before he became a masterful author. This book provides insights into how he created characters, scenes, and small, memorable details for his books.
This book was informative but not gripping in the way his fiction books grab me.
March 18, 2016
This was interesting due to understanding the roots of Connelly's writing. Several of the stories covered here are the real events that played out in his novels & the characters contributed a lot, too. That said, it's true crime or newspaper reporting, often done in parts with summaries that duplicate what I had just heard. Yuck. I don't care for true crime & tend to skim newspaper articles on it, so listening to every single repetitious word was painful. Still, I'm glad to understand Connelly's foundation. It makes Harry Bosch even better.
April 6, 2013
Let me start by admitting that I am a huge Michael Connelly fan and love almost everything he writes.
This book however was a collection of his newspaper reporting from the '80s and at times was very interesting giving a good insight into his work but generally there was not enough to keep me fully entertained.
This book however was a collection of his newspaper reporting from the '80s and at times was very interesting giving a good insight into his work but generally there was not enough to keep me fully entertained.
February 16, 2019
Crime Beat is a collection of newspaper reports that Connelly wrote about the stories he covered over the course of his successful journalistic career. There are twenty two cases, all of them consisting a series of articles. All of them are about three decades old and very few of them are interesting. The original articles might have been touched up a bit to resemble something akin to traditional narratives but they betray their origins. Facts are repeated (as is par for the course in follow ups published days later in a newspaper) every other page and almost one-fourth of the book is redundant. Occasionally Connelly's articles are supplemented by reports from other journos covering other aspects of the crime and Connelly's writing is better.
Connelly's writing has always been bereft of any signature style and often appears generic. This makes him an odd choice to publish feature pieces that he wrote when he was even less polished as an author. However he always knows what he is talking about and his plots have an insider's look at the procedural aspect of police work. Crime Beat successfully shows where and how he honed that definitive aspect of his writing.
This was the only unread Connelly left for me and I wanted some insights into the evolution of one of the most commercially successfully crime authors of his generation. My completionist nature was satisfied but I did not glean much in form of insights. It is clear he would go on to adapt themes and plotlines from his real life experiences notably in Trunk Music (Bosch #5). But the raw source material is simply not interesting by itself.
Connelly should have provided fewer cases as 22 is too large a number when all of them follow the same repetitive structure; or analysed just a couple of them in much greater detail for this book to have any sort of meaning. Not even recommended to Connelly fans or true crime lovers because at the end of the day it is a random collection of dry, thirty year old newspaper clippings. For what it's worth I really struggled to finish it. Rating - 2/5.
Connelly's writing has always been bereft of any signature style and often appears generic. This makes him an odd choice to publish feature pieces that he wrote when he was even less polished as an author. However he always knows what he is talking about and his plots have an insider's look at the procedural aspect of police work. Crime Beat successfully shows where and how he honed that definitive aspect of his writing.
This was the only unread Connelly left for me and I wanted some insights into the evolution of one of the most commercially successfully crime authors of his generation. My completionist nature was satisfied but I did not glean much in form of insights. It is clear he would go on to adapt themes and plotlines from his real life experiences notably in Trunk Music (Bosch #5). But the raw source material is simply not interesting by itself.
Connelly should have provided fewer cases as 22 is too large a number when all of them follow the same repetitive structure; or analysed just a couple of them in much greater detail for this book to have any sort of meaning. Not even recommended to Connelly fans or true crime lovers because at the end of the day it is a random collection of dry, thirty year old newspaper clippings. For what it's worth I really struggled to finish it. Rating - 2/5.
December 30, 2025
This book is not going to take you on a transformative journey of a few characters and a leading protagonist though a fictional wonder of story, because this book is a collection of crime journalism.
This volume is a great telling of several actual crimes the bestselling mystery writer reported on at the newspapers he worked for.
If you are looking to see the bones of a mystery, and enter further into an understanding of the criminal process, this book offers a clear and concise picture of parts of that world.
I gleaned from the book the more I read it, as I better understood the tone and nature of the criminal, police and criminal justice process.
This is not a Bosch or Haller book, but a very good set of true stories.
This volume is a great telling of several actual crimes the bestselling mystery writer reported on at the newspapers he worked for.
If you are looking to see the bones of a mystery, and enter further into an understanding of the criminal process, this book offers a clear and concise picture of parts of that world.
I gleaned from the book the more I read it, as I better understood the tone and nature of the criminal, police and criminal justice process.
This is not a Bosch or Haller book, but a very good set of true stories.
July 27, 2025
I bought this having mistakenly thought it was a biography of the author. It isn't, it's a compendium of some of his crime reporting for Florida and Los Angeles newspapers.
What a pity, because the Introduction is ten pages which beats anything in the main body of the text. In it he relates his first brush with criminal activity. He was 16 and returning home in darkness after completing a dish-washing shift. The streets were empty and from his car he glanced to his left and noticed a large man with long hair and beard running in street clothes. Continuing to run the man took off his shirt, placed something inside it and put it deep into a hedge. Connolly followed, slowly, in his car and saw the man enter a bar; then he did a u-turn and returned to the hidden deposit in the hedge. "There in the shirt was a gun."
He returned it and went on to call his dad from a phone booth. His dad called the police and fifteen minutes later they were standing back at the hedge with two police cars and flashing blue lights. They never got the running man but Michael Connolly had found his vocation in life. He started reading about crime in the newspaper, at first his crime then any crime.
He also talks of particular moments in the introduction and how important they were in shaping his life and his interest in criminal activity. Another moment -- hugely important to him -- was watching a detective sometimes put his glasses in his mouth when pondering something at a crime scene. Later he saw the man place the glasses on a table at the police station and noticed deep groves on the plastic, caused by grinding them with his teeth earlier, an emotional involvement with some grisly detail: the classic "telling detail" in writing.
One telling moment for me, again in the introduction, was this sentence referencing detectives and the attendant journalist. "Their worst day is your best day."
And that, in a nutshell, is why I don't read crime novels. They deal with sordid events involving people who have no regard for others, no conception of the pain they cause.
The book has many of Connolly's newspaper writing, divided into The Cops, The Killers, The Cases. He was a very good descriptive writer from the start, what a shame he writes so often about sad people in many senses of the word. I'd love to read his autobiography.
July 19, 2008
I thought this was fabulous...anyone else might find it a huge bore, though. This book contains the kernels, seeds, of inspiration, the experiences and sights and sounds that stick with you and then coalesce into a future work. And I am so-o-o-o jealous!
Michael Connelly and I were both working as newspaper reporters at the exact time...his press pass shows a goofy, curly headed kid who gets to ride shotgun with the cops for a week, the homicide division no less. Meanwhile mine shows a girl with stupid straight bangs and a pissed-off expression, assigned to covering wedding stories for the bridal section and art exhibit openings. In 1986, girls were not allowed to cover the police beat or the court beat. We were assigned to the lifestyles or entertainment sections.
I can remember my first day and asking the room in general "what the hell is peau de soie?" and the older, female reporter, "mother" of the department, smiling and saying "French for silk" as she slammed a drawer shut with her hip. This woman went on to write murder mystery novelettes for Harlequin romance...and I went on to prostitute myself in advertising where I would be paid a lot more money for knowing stuff like what peau de soie is. And Connelly went on to create an unforgettable character, Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch, the LAPD homicide detective who speaks for the dead. Harry is the compilation of all the real-life detectives Connelly knew, the cases...well, we all know truth is stranger than fiction, no doubt.
In all honesty, he was not that great as a reporter. I bet he drove his editors NUTS with convoluted leads (supposed to be 25-30 words in length, one I counted at 46, why he didn't break into two?) and flowery, inappropriate, editorializing adjectives like "swift and efficient" killer and "bizarre cast of characters and seamy tales." Hmmmm. Use your verbs, man, not your adjectives, to color up a news story!
So, he goes on to write, with great economy and word-restraint, stuff like: “In every murder is the tale of a city.” and "We all are circling the drain, he thought. Some are closer to the black hole than others. Some will see it coming and some will have no clue when the undertow of the whirlpool grabs them and pulls them down into darkness forever."
Connelly found his correct place in the universe. And I'm one of his biggest fans. Thus, the book gets four out of five stars.
Michael Connelly and I were both working as newspaper reporters at the exact time...his press pass shows a goofy, curly headed kid who gets to ride shotgun with the cops for a week, the homicide division no less. Meanwhile mine shows a girl with stupid straight bangs and a pissed-off expression, assigned to covering wedding stories for the bridal section and art exhibit openings. In 1986, girls were not allowed to cover the police beat or the court beat. We were assigned to the lifestyles or entertainment sections.
I can remember my first day and asking the room in general "what the hell is peau de soie?" and the older, female reporter, "mother" of the department, smiling and saying "French for silk" as she slammed a drawer shut with her hip. This woman went on to write murder mystery novelettes for Harlequin romance...and I went on to prostitute myself in advertising where I would be paid a lot more money for knowing stuff like what peau de soie is. And Connelly went on to create an unforgettable character, Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch, the LAPD homicide detective who speaks for the dead. Harry is the compilation of all the real-life detectives Connelly knew, the cases...well, we all know truth is stranger than fiction, no doubt.
In all honesty, he was not that great as a reporter. I bet he drove his editors NUTS with convoluted leads (supposed to be 25-30 words in length, one I counted at 46, why he didn't break into two?) and flowery, inappropriate, editorializing adjectives like "swift and efficient" killer and "bizarre cast of characters and seamy tales." Hmmmm. Use your verbs, man, not your adjectives, to color up a news story!
So, he goes on to write, with great economy and word-restraint, stuff like: “In every murder is the tale of a city.” and "We all are circling the drain, he thought. Some are closer to the black hole than others. Some will see it coming and some will have no clue when the undertow of the whirlpool grabs them and pulls them down into darkness forever."
Connelly found his correct place in the universe. And I'm one of his biggest fans. Thus, the book gets four out of five stars.
April 3, 2012
Connelly of course is the guy who writes the Harry Bosch thrillers set in LA - never a top favourite of mine because his writing is a little drab, but his plots are generally good (except when they're execrable (A Darkness more than Night)). Connelly was/is a journalist, and this is a collection of his crime reporting. And it's a complete waste of time, a pure ego exercise: the writing is very pedestrian, with the stories apparently reprinted as they originally appeared in the papers, including the parts of later articles that summarise the facts in the earlier ones we've just finished reading; there's no attempt to flesh out the background with additional research, or even fill us in on what happened afterwards, in the case of some where the reports just stop without closure. There's a pretentious introduction ("Moments. It all comes down to moments."), which bad as it is is the most interesting thing in the book; or at least in the first third of the book, which is as far as I got before putting it on the recycling pile. One to avoid.
June 15, 2010
For Crime Beat, Connelly dug through his archives to serve up a series of articles he wrote for newspapers in Florida and California during his formative years as a writer. Unstructured and repetitive, this pseudo-collection is nothing that would sell were not the Connelly brand stamped on the cover (he must have been gunning for a yacht).
Apart from an unexplored tag line about the influence of his reporting years on his writing and a brief aside about the importance of the "telling detail" in the introduction, this book plays its cards close, revealing little of biographic interest. I know I'm being fairly hard on this one, but I felt that the author missed an opportunity to instruct through his experience rather than reprint old news.
Apart from an unexplored tag line about the influence of his reporting years on his writing and a brief aside about the importance of the "telling detail" in the introduction, this book plays its cards close, revealing little of biographic interest. I know I'm being fairly hard on this one, but I felt that the author missed an opportunity to instruct through his experience rather than reprint old news.
Read
September 26, 2009The ostensible rationale for this collection of stale journalism pieces is to demonstrate Connelly's contention that working the crime beat is a great way to learn the craft of crime novelist. Unfortunately, you guessed it, the book ends up utterly undermining his own argument. It's hard not to conclude that Connelly is one of the rare birds who are simply good at two different crafts -- because the tiny nuggets of anything resembling novelistic interest panned out in Connelly's newspaper pieces (mostly from long-forgotten cases from the 80's and early 90's) don't seem at ALL sufficient to fuel the bestselling intensity of his Harry Bosch stories.
November 23, 2021
Book Blog | Bookstagram
Maybe be this would be interesting to hardcore Michael Connelly fans??? For me, it was just a collection of newspaper articles from the 1980s, reprinted exactly as they appeared. And damn, some editing would have been nice. This would have been a lot more fun if I was an amateur sleuth looking at microfiche at the library for clues, but I wasn’t. I was eating crackers & cheese in bed in my pyjamas with a dog staring at me, so like, old newspaper pieces weren’t really cutting it.
Connelly had a long career as a journalist and spent a lot of that career writing about crime, which led him to become the prolific fiction author he is. And that’s the dream, baby! (That and being the amateur sleuth with the microfiche, let's not forget.) There were bits and pieces in this that were interesting, but that interest was rapidly destroyed by the super repetitive quality of the collection.
As it goes with newspaper reporting, lots of facts are repeated from one day to the next. In reading those articles back-to-back, things got super redundant and tedious. Like, could we splurge on a little editing? Maybe personal asides from Connelly, analyzing the articles or some newer research? Instead of re-reading the same information from the day before over and over again? Just a thought.
If you’re familiar with Connelly’s fiction, you’ll pick up on where he pulled inspiration for his plots, but as source material goes, the articles don’t really have the strength to hold up a whole book alone. As you would expect from news reporting, there’s a lack of flare and personality to the vibe. That constant, straight-laced “just the facts and quotes, sir” format made this feel like a longer read than it actually was. There’s no attempt to flesh any of this out or, in some cases, provide closure. There are multiple articles, out of the twenty-two presented, that end abruptly with no additional or up-to-date information.
This reads like random, emotionless true crime research, instead of a gripping book.
Honestly, I’m really not even sure fans of Connelly will like this.
The vibe for this one:
⭐½ | 1.5 stars rounded up
Maybe be this would be interesting to hardcore Michael Connelly fans??? For me, it was just a collection of newspaper articles from the 1980s, reprinted exactly as they appeared. And damn, some editing would have been nice. This would have been a lot more fun if I was an amateur sleuth looking at microfiche at the library for clues, but I wasn’t. I was eating crackers & cheese in bed in my pyjamas with a dog staring at me, so like, old newspaper pieces weren’t really cutting it.
Connelly had a long career as a journalist and spent a lot of that career writing about crime, which led him to become the prolific fiction author he is. And that’s the dream, baby! (That and being the amateur sleuth with the microfiche, let's not forget.) There were bits and pieces in this that were interesting, but that interest was rapidly destroyed by the super repetitive quality of the collection.
As it goes with newspaper reporting, lots of facts are repeated from one day to the next. In reading those articles back-to-back, things got super redundant and tedious. Like, could we splurge on a little editing? Maybe personal asides from Connelly, analyzing the articles or some newer research? Instead of re-reading the same information from the day before over and over again? Just a thought.
If you’re familiar with Connelly’s fiction, you’ll pick up on where he pulled inspiration for his plots, but as source material goes, the articles don’t really have the strength to hold up a whole book alone. As you would expect from news reporting, there’s a lack of flare and personality to the vibe. That constant, straight-laced “just the facts and quotes, sir” format made this feel like a longer read than it actually was. There’s no attempt to flesh any of this out or, in some cases, provide closure. There are multiple articles, out of the twenty-two presented, that end abruptly with no additional or up-to-date information.
This reads like random, emotionless true crime research, instead of a gripping book.
Honestly, I’m really not even sure fans of Connelly will like this.
The vibe for this one:
⭐½ | 1.5 stars rounded up
October 9, 2015
Another great from Michael Connelly!!
I've read the Bosch books, Lincoln Lawyer novels, and now this from his days as a Journalist/Crime Reporter! This was not a bad read.... A little slow at times, but it read like any newspaper piece! It wasn't a jam-packed essay on the topic, it seemed like he was given a word limit and put "just the facts".
It was a great read, I enjoyed it because I see just where he came up with the ideas for ALOT of his books!!(Trunk Music, The Poet, Black Box, and many more!!!)
Very fun!! I hope he keeps cranking out more fun, fast paced reads for years to come!!
I've read the Bosch books, Lincoln Lawyer novels, and now this from his days as a Journalist/Crime Reporter! This was not a bad read.... A little slow at times, but it read like any newspaper piece! It wasn't a jam-packed essay on the topic, it seemed like he was given a word limit and put "just the facts".
It was a great read, I enjoyed it because I see just where he came up with the ideas for ALOT of his books!!(Trunk Music, The Poet, Black Box, and many more!!!)
Very fun!! I hope he keeps cranking out more fun, fast paced reads for years to come!!
November 14, 2023
As a work of true crime nonfiction, this isn't going to make my list of favorites. Rather than probe deeply into the various cases, this is simply a reprinting of old newspaper articles. They tend to be objective on purpose and avoid any judgmental observations or opinions. Naturally, as each successive one has to recap what has happened before, they tend to become a little repetitive.
As a memoir-of-sorts that shines a light on the influences of a favorite crime fiction novelist this is valuable, especially to a big fan of Connelly's fiction like myself.
The majority of crimes and stories reprinted here are very interesting. It just feels a bit dry and unemotional, which actually helps me appreciate the flavoring and empathy that Connelly inserts into his novels. Several of these newspaper stories inspired Connelly's fiction and became part of the plot.
As a memoir-of-sorts that shines a light on the influences of a favorite crime fiction novelist this is valuable, especially to a big fan of Connelly's fiction like myself.
The majority of crimes and stories reprinted here are very interesting. It just feels a bit dry and unemotional, which actually helps me appreciate the flavoring and empathy that Connelly inserts into his novels. Several of these newspaper stories inspired Connelly's fiction and became part of the plot.
May 14, 2010
Having read most of Connelly's fiction books and loving them, I was initially quite excited to find out more about Connelly as a reporter, and hoped to gain some insight into how he started and where he got his insipiration. In some respects I suppose this book met that aim, in that you can see some brief glimpses into how Connelly uses his experience as a crime beat reporter to develop his characters and plots in his novels. However I really struggled to finish the book, and only really carried on out of respect for Connelly as an author. I found the articles in the book too repetitive, and without the huamn insights or flair of Connelly's other work. Overall, quite disappointing.
April 29, 2015
Crime Beat by Michael Connelly is a collection of reports and articles from his time as a crime reporter and which provided the inspiration for his novels. It was interesting to read about the various crimes, some of which were never solved unlike in fiction. His novels though are much more exciting and satisfying. Crime Beat although interesting was quite tedious and repetitive in places.
January 17, 2023
It’s hard for me to rate Michael Connelly’s Crime Beat from a neutral position. The book is made up of Connelly’s crime-centered newspaper articles, virtually all from The Los Angeles Times between 1984 and 1992. Most of them I must have read in real time, but although I remember many of the crimes, I don’t recall a word of the articles. They are factual and thorough and … that’s about it. They certainly reflect the same lack of affect that characterizes Connelly’s fiction. In his closing tribute Michael Larson notes that Connelly’s work, like Hammett’s, Chandler’s and Westlake/Stark’s, marked a change in the genre, and then goes on to compare him to Ross MacDonald! Based on that my recommendation is to read some Kenneth Millar (MacDonald is a nom de plume), of whom The New York Times wrote “When he died in 1983, Ross Macdonald was the … most highly regarded crime-fiction writer in America.” And while you’re at it read some of his wife’s fiction as well. In my opinion she was the better writer of the two, and that’s saying a lot.
July 2, 2026
Bit of a mixed bag. It's a compilation of old Connelly newspaper articles he wrote while on the crime beat before becoming a novelist. You can clearly see the writing talent, especially in the pieces that are more like features about crimes and the detectives. Some others are kind of just dull reporting on old crimes.
November 8, 2011
This book is for Michael Connelly fans. I'm not sure that anyone who has not read at least some of his books would enjoy it.
For me, the best part of this book was the Introduction in which he tells about how he became interested in crime reporting. When Connelly was 16 he worked as a night dishwasher in a hotel restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, FL. On his way home from work one night he witnessed a man escaping after robbing a nearby store and shooting a man in the head. His experience in working with the detectives, even though they never found the robber, got him interested in crime and he began reading the newspaper. Then he started reading books by crime writers, such as Joseph Wambaugh and Raymond Chandler. It is interesting that his experience led him to crime reporting and not to law enforcement.
Connelly also tells about watching a particular detective as a crime reporter who became the basis for Harry Bosch. This was great fun to read.
The rest of the book is a reprinting of stories that appeared under his byline when he was a newspaper crime reporter. The book is divided into three sections: The Cops, The Killers, and The Cases. Since they are newspaper stories and reporters must give all the details in each story, some of the information is repetitive if there are several stories about the same case. That is not what I expected this book to be. I thought Connelly would write about stories he covered as a reporter.
In reading the stories, you can definitely see the story lines for some of Connelly's books. You also see how he developed his writing style. As a reporter, he tells a straight forward story without embellishment. He does the same thing in his books, which I love. I prefer linear writing to foreshadowing and most writers use way too many adjectives.
The final 10 pages of the book are "The Novelist as Reporter" written by Michael Carlson. In this section, Carlson talks about Connelly's development from a reporter to a novelist. I was surprised to read that Carlson has written about Connelly for other publications. I love his books, but didn't know that people were writing about him.
For me, the best part of this book was the Introduction in which he tells about how he became interested in crime reporting. When Connelly was 16 he worked as a night dishwasher in a hotel restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, FL. On his way home from work one night he witnessed a man escaping after robbing a nearby store and shooting a man in the head. His experience in working with the detectives, even though they never found the robber, got him interested in crime and he began reading the newspaper. Then he started reading books by crime writers, such as Joseph Wambaugh and Raymond Chandler. It is interesting that his experience led him to crime reporting and not to law enforcement.
Connelly also tells about watching a particular detective as a crime reporter who became the basis for Harry Bosch. This was great fun to read.
The rest of the book is a reprinting of stories that appeared under his byline when he was a newspaper crime reporter. The book is divided into three sections: The Cops, The Killers, and The Cases. Since they are newspaper stories and reporters must give all the details in each story, some of the information is repetitive if there are several stories about the same case. That is not what I expected this book to be. I thought Connelly would write about stories he covered as a reporter.
In reading the stories, you can definitely see the story lines for some of Connelly's books. You also see how he developed his writing style. As a reporter, he tells a straight forward story without embellishment. He does the same thing in his books, which I love. I prefer linear writing to foreshadowing and most writers use way too many adjectives.
The final 10 pages of the book are "The Novelist as Reporter" written by Michael Carlson. In this section, Carlson talks about Connelly's development from a reporter to a novelist. I was surprised to read that Carlson has written about Connelly for other publications. I love his books, but didn't know that people were writing about him.
September 14, 2016
For me no one beats Michael Connelly for writing the absolute best police procedural/crime novels. I can't get enough of his Harry Bosch series, and eagerly await each new book in the series-which I usually read within days of its publication. But this collection of Connelly's columns from the 1980s that covers crimes in Florida and Los Angeles were, if I'm going to be honest, pretty dry and a bit boring. These columns are nothing like a Harry Bosch novel. Just the facts ma'am, as Detective Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet. And since there are follow-ups to the cases that Connelly is reporting on, we get those too, with all the previous info that we already knew repeated again. Sometimes there are two follow-up stories, so you end up saying, "jeez, I've already read all this twice before, now I have to read it again?" So yeah, not exactly thrilling reading. Did I mention I can't wait for the next Harry Bosch novel?
September 5, 2011
I got this one as an audio book, which did not add to my enjoyment. A great disappointment, as this book is basically a reprint of Connolly's old newspaper articles about each of these cases, with little or no new information or insight. In addition, that fact means that there is a lot of repetition in each chapter as it appears that Connolly hasn't bothered to edit out the redundancies inherent in news articles printed about the same case on different days.
To add insult to injury, the guy who read the audiobook had a slight, somewhat offputting accent and sometimes slurred a little, as if he had been drinking.
Save your money. If you really want to read it, pick it up at the local library - but I think you'll be disappointed, especially if you're a fan of Harry Bosch and Connolly's other fiction.
To add insult to injury, the guy who read the audiobook had a slight, somewhat offputting accent and sometimes slurred a little, as if he had been drinking.
Save your money. If you really want to read it, pick it up at the local library - but I think you'll be disappointed, especially if you're a fan of Harry Bosch and Connolly's other fiction.
August 18, 2024
I had hoped this was a book of Connelly reflecting upon his early days as a reporter, which shaped his future career as a novelist. But the bulk of the book was a collection of his newspaper articles through the years. The long form articles worked well in this format, but the articles that were installments alongside an investigation or trial were painfully repetitive. (The introduction was the highlight for me - his reflections on this time period of his life). This volume is strictly for the Connelly completionist (like me); all others should pick up any of his novels they haven't read as he hasn't written a bad book!
February 11, 2020
Be forewarned that this is not a novel or an autobiography. It is a collection of Connelly's news articles from his time as a journalist at the Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Los Angeles Times. In the articles, you can see the bones and foundation of Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, and I got a sense of Connelly finding the voice that eventually emerged in his fiction work.
Certainly a must for Connelly completists. If your relationship with Connelly and Bosch are more casual, your mileage may vary.
Certainly a must for Connelly completists. If your relationship with Connelly and Bosch are more casual, your mileage may vary.
January 10, 2009
Only took a few hours to breeze through this one. Mainly just repeats of his newspaper stories when he was a crime reporter in FL and CA. (I'd be ticked off if I had paid retail for the book--I'm a fan but not a fanboy) Still, I found it interesting to see elements of his real life crime stories show up in his novels. Some stories are really interesting and some not so much. Worth a read if you can check it out from a friend or library. Not so much if you have to buy.
August 2, 2023
Dreary, depressing, repetitive and, apart from a fairly interesting introduction, offers no insight into how the cases reprinted in this book influenced or bisected with Connelly's fictional universe. If I were to be charitable, I'd say Crime Beat was a good idea poorly implemented. A less charitable soul might view it as a cynical cash-in.
October 17, 2015
The very early days of Michael Connolly as a reporter.
This book only for die-hard fans who want to see his development from hack to adequate writer. The good stuff comes much later than you see in this book though.
This book only for die-hard fans who want to see his development from hack to adequate writer. The good stuff comes much later than you see in this book though.
December 31, 2011
Review deleted.
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