Are you a fan of legal mystery and wondering how to read Michael Connelly’s books in order? here is a list to help you read the entire series.
michael connelly is popularly known for his harry bosch universe thrillers which are popular with many readers. but did you know that connelly has other books besides the harry bosch series, like the series by mickey haller, jack mcevoy, renée billard, and terry mccaleb?
You are reading: What is the order of michael connelly books
each series is independent of the rest, but many of the characters in a series appear in other parts of different books.
If you want to read Michael Connelly’s books in order, you’ve come to the right place.
who is michael connelly?
Michael Connelly is a New York Times bestselling author, but he hadn’t always planned on a writing career. initially, connelly planned to work in construction, but while attending college he changed paths. That’s because he saw Robert Altman’s 1973 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s book, The Long Goodbye, and was inspired to write a crime novel.
then began studying journalism in college and became a journalist after graduation. Connelly worked for Florida crime newspapers before moving to Los Angeles as a crime reporter. he started writing when he was still working as a journalist and it wasn’t until the success of his third novel that he left his day job.
connelly has since written 36 novels and one non-fiction book. Collectively, her works have sold more than 80 million copies and have been translated into 45 languages.
how to read michael connelly’s books in order
While it seems impossible to read all of these books in any order, it is possible. Start by reading Henry Bosch’s books, and you’ll love the flow. Some people swear to start anywhere, maybe start with Renée Ballard’s book or Mickey Haller.
however, soon you will meet the harry bosch character you know nothing about. it will be hard to enjoy the book as you would if you had started from the beginning with harry bosch.
Harry Bosch isn’t just a character from Michael Connelly’s books; he is a whole world worth discovering. so it is recommended to read the books by michael connelly in order.
let’s dive in!
books by michael connelly in publication order – harry bosch universe
This list is a comprehensive look at the Harry Bosch universe. that is, all the books written by michael connelly that have crosses with his main work, harry bosch. For a more detailed look at just the Harry Bosch books, check out my Harry Bosch Books in Order article.
below this harry bosch universe master list, we’ll separate the individual series in case you want to start with something smaller.
- the black echo (1992)
- the black ice (1993)
- the concrete blonde (1994)
- the last coyote ( 1995) )
- the poet (1996)
- música de trunk (1997)
- work of blood (1998)
- flight of angels (1999)
- empty moon (1999)
- darkness more than night (2000)
- city of bones (2002)
- lost light (2003) )
- the narrows (2004)
- the closers (2005)
- the lincoln lawyer (2005)
- echo park (2006)
- the lookout (2007)
- the bronze verdict (2008)
- the scarecrow (2009)
- nine dragons (2009)
- the inversion (2010)
- the fifth witness (2011)
- the drop (2011)
- the black box (2012)
- the gods of guilt (2013)
- the burning room (2014)
- the journey (2015)
- the wrong side of goodbye (2016)
- the late show (2017)
- two kinds of truth (2017)
- dark night and sacred (2018)
- the night fire (2019)
- fair warning (2020)
- the w of innocence (2020)
- the dark hours (2021)
- desert star (expected: November 8, 2022)
books by harry bosch in order – short stories
- blue on black (2010)
- investigative angle (2011)
- suicide run (2011)
- razor (2014)
michael connelly books in order – jack mcevoy
- the poet (1996)
- the scarecrow (2009)
- fair warning (2020)
michael connelly books in order – terry mcaleb
- blood test (1998)
- a darker than night (2000)
- the narrows (2004)
michael connelly books in order – mickey haller
- the lincoln lawyer (2005)
- the bronze verdict (2008)
- the reversal (2010)
- the fifth witness ( 2011)
- the gods of guilt (2013)
- the law of innocence (2020)
michael connelly books in order – renée ballard
- the late show (2017)
- dark holy night (2018)
- the night fire (2019)
- the dark hours (2021 ) )
- desert star (expected: November 8, 2022)
michael connelly books in order – independent
- void moon (1999)
- chasing the dime (2002)
- mulholland dive (2012) (short stories)
summary of renée ballard’s books in order
1. the late show
Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, starting many investigations but finishing none as she hands her cases over to the day shift detectives every morning. Once an up-and-coming detective, she received this hit as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.
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but one night he comes across two cases he doesn’t want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the murder of a young woman in a nightclub. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn.
against the orders and wishes of his own partner, he works both cases during the day and keeps his night shift. As the cases intertwine, she is brought closer to her own demons and the reason why she won’t leave her job no matter what the department throws at her.
2. dark holy night
Renée Ballard is back at work on the late night beat and returns to the Hollywood station in the wee hours only to find a stranger rummaging through old file cabinets. The intruder is retired detective Harry Bosch, working a cold case that has gotten under his skin. Ballard kicks him out, but then she investigates the case herself, causing him a deep pang of empathy and anger.
Bosch is investigating the death of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a fugitive from the streets of Hollywood who was brutally murdered and her body dumped in a dumpster like trash. Now, Ballard joins forces with Bosch to find out what happened to Daisy and finally bring her killer to justice.
3. the fire of the night
When Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the job personally and light the fire of ruthlessness in every case. Now that mentor, John Jack Thompson, is dead, but after his funeral, his widow gives Bosch a murder book that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD 20 years earlier: the unsolved murder of a troubled young man in an alley used for drug deals.
Bosch brings the murder file to Renée Ballard and asks her to help him find out what’s going on with the case that lit the Thompson fire all those years ago. that will be his starting point.
The bond between Bosch and Ballard deepens as they become a formidable research team. And they soon come to a troubling question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work on the case when he retired, or to make sure it never got solved?
4. the dark hours
there is chaos in hollywood on new year’s eve. Working her night shift, LAPD detective Renée Ballard seeks shelter at the end of the countdown to wait out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers fire their guns into the air. As reports of broken windshields and other damage begin to trickle in, Ballard is called to a scene where a hard-working auto shop owner has been shot to death in the middle of a crowded street party. p>
It doesn’t take long for Ballard to determine that the deadly bullet couldn’t have fallen from the sky. Ballard’s investigation leads her to investigate another unsolved murder: a case once worked by Detective Harry Bosch.
ballard and bosch team up once again to find out where old and new cases intersect. all the time they should look over their shoulders. the killer who has gone undetected for so long knows he is being hunted.
5. desert star
Police Department Detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch work together to hunt down the killer who is Bosch’s “White Whale”, a man responsible for the murder of an entire family.
It’s been a year since LAPD Detective Renée Ballard resigned from the force due to misogyny, demoralization and endless bureaucracy. However, after being told by the police chief himself that he can be ticketed within the department, Ballard takes his badge from him and leaves “the late show” to rebuild the cold case unit in the elite robbery-homicide division.
For years, Harry Bosch has been working on a case that haunts him but has not been able to solve: the murder of an entire family at the hands of a psychopath who is still free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come work with her as a volunteer investigator in the new open unsolved unit, and he can chase down her “white whale” with the resources of the LAPD behind him.
The two must put aside old resentments to work together again and get closer to a dangerous killer.
summary of jack mcevoy’s books in order
1. the poet
jack mcevoy, a reporter for denver crime-beat, specializes in violent deaths. So when his brother, the homicide detective, commits suicide, McEvoy copes the only way he knows how. he decides to write the story.
but his investigation leads him to suspect a serial killer is at work, a cunning assassin who is killing cops and leaving a trail of poetic clues. It’s the news of a lifetime for him, if he can get the story without getting killed.
2. the scarecrow
jack mcevoy is at the back of the line as a police reporter. Forced to take a buyout from the Los Angeles Times as the paper grapples with declining revenue, he only has a few days left on the job. his last assignment? training his replacement, a low-cost reporter just out of journalism school.
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but jack has other plans for his exit. He’s going out with a bang, a final story that will win news journalism’s highest honor: a Pulitzer Prize.
Jack centers on Alonzo Winslow, a 16-year-old drug dealer from The Projects who has confessed to police that he brutally raped and strangled one of his crack clients. Jack convinces Alonzo’s mother to cooperate with her investigation into her son’s possible innocence.
but he’s fallen for the oldest reporter trick in the book. Jack’s true intention is to use his access to inform and write a story that explains how social dysfunction and neglect created a 16-year-old killer. But as Jack digs into the story, he soon realizes that Alonso’s alleged confession is false, and Jack soon begins working on the biggest story he’s had since the poet crossed his path years before. .
He teams up with fbi agent rachel walling to hunt down a killer who has worked completely under the radar of the police and fbi, and with perfect knowledge of any move against him. What Jack doesn’t know is that his investigation has inadvertently triggered a digital tripwire. the killer knows jack is coming and is ready.
3. fair warning
Veteran reporter Jack McEvoy has taken down killers before, but when a woman he had a one-night stand with is murdered in a particularly brutal manner, McEvoy realizes he might be facing a criminal mastermind unlike any other. ever met.
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Mcevoy investigates, against the warnings of the police and his own publisher, and makes a shocking discovery that connects the crime to other mysterious deaths across the country. but his investigation hits a snag when he himself becomes a suspect.
As he races to clear his name, mcevoy’s findings point to a serial killer who worked under the radar of law enforcement for years and used personal data shared by victims themselves to select and hunt down his targets. .
a summary of harry bosch’s book
1. the straits
fbi agent rachel walling finally gets the call she’s dreaded for years, the one telling her the poet has shown up. She has never forgotten the serial killer who weaved lines of poetry into her horrific crimes, and apparently he has not.
Former Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch also gets a call from the widow of an old friend. The death of her husband seems natural, but her links with the search for the poet make Bosch go deeper.
Reaching an abandoned site in the California desert where the feds are digging up bodies, Bosch joins forces with Rachel. Now the two are at odds with the FBI and squarely in the path of the poet, who will guide them on a wicked journey out of the heat, through the straits of evil, and into a darkness of their own.
summary of terry mcaleb’s books in order
1. blood test
When graciella rivers boards his boat, ex-fbi agent terrell mccaleb has no idea he’s about to come out of retirement. he is recovering from a heart transplant and avoids anything stressful. But when Graciela tells him how Gloria’s sister was murdered, Terry has no choice.
Now, the man with the new heart vows to take down a soulless predator. because the glory killer breaks every rule mccaleb learned in his years with the office. McCaleb gets no more second chances at life… and only one chance to find out the truth.
2. a darkness more than the night
Police officers ask retired FBI agent Terry McCaleb to help them investigate a series of murders that have them baffled. They’re the kind of ritualized murders that McCaleb specialized in solving with the FBI, and he’s reluctantly drawn from his peaceful new life into the horror and thrill of tracking down a terrifying homicidal maniac.
Even more frightening, the suspect who seems to fit the profile McCaleb develops is someone he has known and worked with in the past: Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Harry Bosch.
final thoughts
the michael connelly books in order are intriguing and hard to follow once you pick them up. endless murders and investigations will entertain your imagination at all times. you don’t have to skip any book in this series!
Looking for more book recommendations?
check out this list of the best books by michael connelly.