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I need some advice...I've read the Mickey Haller trilogy and now I'm interested in Harry Bosch. Should I start at #1 and work my way through or can I just read Michael Connelly's latest?

Steve wrote: "I need some advice...I've read the Mickey Haller trilogy and now I'm interested in Harry Bosch. Should I start at #1 and work my way through or can I just read Michael Connelly's latest?"

Absolutely read the Bosch series chronologically. The various books strongly build on each other, both in terms of character development and (albeit on a less prominent level) in terms of certain plot elements, even if each individual book presents a specific crime/mystery that is solved within the confines of that book itself.

P.S. Thanks for the "like"!

Steve wrote: "I need some advice...I've read the Mickey Haller trilogy and now I'm interested in Harry Bosch. Should I start at #1 and work my way through or can I just read Michael Connelly's latest?"

I would recommend starting with MC first Harry Bosch novel his character grows on you. i think they were all great reads.

I resisted Connelly for a long time in my teens because I never liked American police stories (except McBain) but I read City of Bones and Angel's Flight and though they were pretty decent. My question is, which of the remaining Bosch books is the best? I really wanna get back into Connelly since so many people (Lee Child included) are big fans.

P.S. I've heard that Trunk Music is one of the best early ones.
Thanks, fellow Goodreaders!

Ryan wrote: "I resisted Connelly for a long time in my teens because I never liked American police stories (except McBain) but I read City of Bones and Angel's Flight and though they were pretty decent. My question is, which of the remaining Bosch books is the best? I really wanna get back into Connelly since so many people (Lee Child included) are big fans.

P.S. I've heard that Trunk Music is one of the best early ones."

Initially, see comment #2 (this, incidentally, from someone who also discovered Connelly via Angels Flight). That said, the very first Bosch (Black Echo) does remain one of the best IMHO. Also, for Bosch's personal background, you may particularly also want to check out The Last Coyote before moving on to Trunk Music (which would then be the next one, chronologically speaking). Similarly, the later books' references to Eleanor Wish and her role in Bosch's life (view spoiler)[(the love of his life and, as he will come to discover years after the fact, the mother of his daughter, who repeatedly left him and eventually settled first in Las Vegas and finally in Hong Kong) (hide spoiler)] really only make sense if you've read both The Black Echo and Trunk Music.

I'm not sure whether you have to have read all of the Bosch novels before moving on to the Mickey Haller series, but you definitely ought to have read the early ones, as Bosch's and Haller's histories interconnect (view spoiler)[(it turns out that they are half brothers) (hide spoiler)].

Similarly, you should have read the two earlier Terry McCaleb novels, Blood Work and A Darkness More Than Night, as well as the first Jack McEvoy novel, The Poet, before moving on to The Narrows; and you should have read at lease ONE of the Haller novels (preferably the first one, The Lincoln Lawyer), as well as virtually the entire Bosch canon before moving on to The Nine Dragons (where, when you get to that point, you'll see a few references to Angels Flight in particular, too, aside from having to be familiar with Bosch's and Eleanor Wish's personal history, as told in The Black Echo and virtually every novel from Trunk Music onwards).

And if you've read Void Moon (aside from the repeated shifts in perspective in The Narrows, Connelly's to date only novel told largely from the POV of a female protagonist), you'll recognize yet another minor character in The Narrows ...

All this to say that Connelly's novels do strongly build on each other -- not just the Bosch series, but increasingly his non-Bosch books as well. And the amazing thing is that Connelly is able to keep his writing up to the high standard he set with his very first books ... so again, I'd say start with The Black Echo and go on chronologically from there!

Is there any way to remove the non-Michael Connelly books from this list? While they sort to the bottom, they really don't belong on the list.

Steve wrote: "I need some advice...I've read the Mickey Haller trilogy and now I'm interested in Harry Bosch. Should I start at #1 and work my way through or can I just read Michael Connelly's latest?"

Steve begin with one and devour every Connelly Bosch novel. You won't be sorry.

Michael Connelly had me at Hello. I read the Lincoln Lawyer first and then I read many of his other books and I was totally taken with his characters and his writing style. Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch are two great characters. I read them in no particular order but had no trouble making sense of the timelines. I couldn't put them down for long. I'm a fan.

There were some Connelly books that I've read that were not on the list, but Connelly's style is smooth and I like it. He is my # 3 author next to #1 John Sanford and #2 Jo Nesbo.

Pattie wrote: "Is there any way to remove the non-Michael Connelly books from this list? While they sort to the bottom, they really don't belong on the list."

All removed.

Lobstergirl wrote: "Pattie wrote: "Is there any way to remove the non-Michael Connelly books from this list? While they sort to the bottom, they really don't belong on the list."

All removed."
Thank you!