Book Review: Harry Bosch Series by Michael Connelly

The latest author I'm hooked on is Michael Connelly. My latest reading fest is about his character Harry Bosch, a homicide detective in Los Angeles. I started reading the books in reverse order. I don't recommend that but it was how I was receiving them from the library.

The first book I read was The Overlook (2007). It is a very good book and I enjoyed it. However, throughout the book Harry kept mentioning "after what happened in Echo Park." Well? What happened in Echo Park?! Drove me nuts. The next one I read was The Closers (2005), so I finally just bought Echo Park (2006) from amazon.com. Whew! Now I know what happened in Echo Park. I can relax. The next book I read was The Narrows (2004) and recently City of Bones (2002).

Each book could be a stand alone (except for The Overlook, please read Echo Park first). However, the series started in 1992. There is so much character history that it could be very, very helpful to start with the first book, The Black Echo. Since I don't like surprises, I don't mind reading in reverse order because then I already know what happens to the characters later. But, Connelly's books are certainly suspenseful enough that it doesn't matter I "peeked to the end," so to speak. 

Connelly's Bosch series has over 15 books, as well as at least a dozen other books. Wow. This is going to take me some time to read them all, but I'm willing. What I find most helpful is printing the list of all his books at www.stopyourekillingme.com. It's the best site for mystery readers. I print off lists of all the writers I'm following so I can check off which ones I've read.Very, very helpful.

So, yes, I truly recommend Michael Connelly! His books are "once you start reading you can't stop." You know I want that in an author, and Connelly is brilliant at that.