…the characters aren't what make Mr. Connelly's books worthwhile. The classic mystery plotting and streamlined storytelling are what render him so readable. Of all the big-name writers who dominate this genre, Mr. Connelly is the most solid, old-school pro. His books also have a kind of broody glamour…Tiny, Hispanic San Fernando; the panoramic skyscraper in which Harry is hired for the Vance job; the grand old-money throwback that is the Vance estate; the more interesting places where Vibiana et al. wound up: All of it is etched in indelible detail and with great care. The people of The Wrong Side of Goodbye may not be with you by the next time Harry comes around. But the settings will be etched into the Bosch road map of California life.

Sooner or later, Harry Bosch will have to turn in his gun and retire from police work, but until that time Michael Connelly continues to think up creative ways to keep his old war horse on the job.

01/30/2017
Welliver, who portrays protagonist Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch in the Amazon Prime TV adaptation of Connelly’s series, clearly has no problem embodying the tough, almost obsessively dedicated Southern California crime fighter. But the actor’s previous work in supporting roles serve him equally well when dealing with the other characters that inhabit Harry’s literary landscape. Prominent among them in Bosch #21 is reclusive octogenarian billionaire Whitney Vance. In a voice soft and croaky with age and infirmity, he hires Harry as a private detective to find out if he has a living heir from an affair 65 years before. Simultaneously, at the San Fernando PD—where the former LAPD sleuth is stationed as an unpaid reserve officer working under a slow-talking sympathetic police chief and a captain whose speech suggests suspicion and animosity—Harry is assigned the investigation of the Screen Cutter serial rapist. The two cases remain separate, pulling Harry in two directions and introducing him to fellow cops, young and old witnesses, male and female persons of interest, and two very different villains (the smarmy rapist and a sophisticated murderer), all enacted with apparent ease by the versatile Welliver. A Little, Brown hardcover. (Nov.)

10/03/2016
Bestseller Connolly’s canny detective, Harry Bosch, remains a compelling lead, but even longtime fans may feel that his creator gives him a few too many fortuitous breaks in his 21st outing (after 2015’s The Crossing). Bosch’s long career with the LAPD is a thing of the past, and he now divides his time between PI work and pro bono service as a reserve police officer for the city of San Fernando. He gets involved in an apparently impossible case for an extremely wealthy client, Whitney Vance, who pays Bosch $10,000 just to agree to a meeting. The 85-year-old Vance asks Bosch to find out, in complete secrecy, what became of the woman Vance impregnated 65 years earlier and who disappeared from his life almost immediately afterward. The billionaire, who believes he is nearing his end, hopes the investigator can ascertain whether he has a living heir. Though the trail is beyond cold, Bosch lucks into a solid lead. The multiple contrivances significantly diminish the plot. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary. (Nov.)

Praise for The Wrong Side of Goodbye:

"....a powerful, Macdonald-esque meditation on the claims the past exerts on the present. Few mystery novelists make background facts and simple descriptions sing the way this writer does. And no writer exploits Los Angeles - its geography, its historical power wars, its celebrity culture, its lore - as compellingly as Connelly....he must be read."
—Lloyd Sachs, Chicago Tribune

"If any novelist is worthy to walk once more through the front door of Raymond Chandler's iconic Sternwood mansion, it's Michael Connelly. For over two decades, Connelly has been brilliantly updating and enlarging the possibilities of the classic L.A. hard-boiled novel, first bestowed upon the world in 1939 with Chandler's debut, The Big Sleep. This latest Bosch outing is its own accomplishment: brooding and intricate, suspenseful and sad. In short, it's another terrific Michael Connelly mystery....a master of the genre."
—Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post

"Bosch at his best."
—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"Connelly has created in Bosch one of the great characters in contemporary crime fiction."—Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times

"Michael Connelly is the master of the universe in which he lives, and that is the sphere of crime thrillers. This man is so good at what he does.... THE WRONG SIDE OF GOODBYE is the twenty first Harry Bosch story and it is just as good or better than the first one was. Nobody writes like Connelly, nobody. He is unique in his style and also in the character of Harry Bosch he has created. If you read one page about Harry Bosch as written by Michael Connelly you will be hooked for life."
—Jackie K. Cooper, Huffington Post

"It is impossible for Connelly to tell a bad story. Moving effortlessly between Bosch's private and public cases, he ratchets up the tension...pulling off in the final few chapters a California noir sleight of hand that would make Ross Macdonald envious."
—Robert Anglen, The Arizona Republic

"In each novel, Connelly has dug deeper into Harry's psyche, as he skillfully does in The Wrong Side of Goodbye....Connelly's melding of the police procedural, private detective novel and intense character study remains solid. Harry isn't with the LAPD anymore, but readers will be glad to know he is still on the job."—Oline H. Cogdill, South Florida Sun Sentinel

"....it is immensely satisfying to see Bosch's sustained and deepened passion for his mission- "Everybody count or nobody counts" - undiminished by age or circumstance, even as a younger generation of detectives of all colors and orientations share the stage to carry on the work that has given Bosch, and this series, such an enduring appeal. Harry Bosch and his law enforcement heirs are still fighting the good fight, luckily, for us all."
—Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times

"It is a disturbing and yet cathartic tale-within-a-tale that proves once again what a master storyteller Connelly is."
—Bruce Tierney, BookPage

"Connelly continues to discover new depths to his character and new stories to tell that reveal those depths in always compelling ways. Hats off one more time to a landmark crime series."—Bill Ott, Booklist (starred review)

"Swift, unpredictable, and thrilling."
—Bookreporter

"Michael Connelly writes with a seamless unity of tone and pace that makes reading his crime novels absolutely effortless and totally engaging...his narrative rolls out in a perfect parade of action, memory, emotion, color and tension."
—Margie Romero, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"Bosch fans will rejoice at the pluperfect ending."
—Tim O'Connell, Florida Times-Union

"....lots of surprises and surprise endings. Bosch's legion of readers will come away entertained - and gratified that in his acknowledgments, Connelly all but promises yet another Bosch tale."—Harry Levins, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"....another masterful Michael Connelly mystery...highly recommended."
—Maureen McCarthy, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"This is an excellent police procedural crime novel, one of Connelly's best; it's full of well-developed characters, taut situations and vivid descriptions."
—Ray Walsh, Lansing State Journal

"Irresistible...Connelly nods to his early inspiration Raymond Chandler while strengthening his own claim to the mystery writers' pantheon."—Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times

06/15/2016
So big that Hachette allowed him a one-hour booth takeover at BookExpo America, Connelly returns with another tale featuring redoubtable detective Harry Bosch. No plot details yet, but note that 2015's The Crossing had the most preorders of any Connelly title ever. With a 550,000-copy first printing.

Narrator Titus Welliver has developed a great voice for detective Harry Bosch over several titles, and here again in twin investigations that touch on Bosch’s family, especially his daughter, Maddie. While working on a serial rapist "screen cutter" case in the small community of San Fernando, Bosch is asked by a reclusive aviation billionaire to find an heir who may or may not exist. Welliver uses subtle changes in tone and pitch to find unique voices for various characters. When Bosch’s partner goes missing, Welliver ramps-up the tension using swift pacing and increased volume. Music at the ends of chapters is a bonus. Welliver's narration maintains the laid-back persona of Bosch while evoking his drive to save his partner from one of the most dangerous psychopaths they’ve ever encountered. A great mystery and a great narration are a winning combination. S.C.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

2016-10-05
Harry Bosch, balancing a new pair of gigs in greater LA, tackles two cases, one of them official, one he struggles to keep as private as can be.Now that he’s settled the lawsuit he brought against the LAPD for having forced him into retirement, Harry (The Crossing, 2015, etc.) is working as an unsalaried, part-time reservist for the San Fernando Police Department while keeping his license as a private investigator. Just as the San Fernando force is decimated by the layoffs that made Harry such an attractive hire, it’s confronted with a serious menace: the Screen Cutter, a serial rapist with a bizarre penchant for assaulting women during the most fertile days of their menstrual cycles. Ordinarily Harry would jump at the chance to join officers Bella Lourdes and Danny Sisto in tracking down the Screen Cutter, and he does offer one or two promising suggestions. But he’s much more intent on the private job he’s taken for 85-year-old engineering czar Whitney Vance, who wants him to find Vibiana Duarte, the Mexican girl he impregnated when he was a USC student, and her child, who’d be well past middle age by now—and also wants him to keep his inquiries absolutely secret. Harry’s admirably dogged sleuthing soon reveals what became of Vibiana and her child, but his discovery is less interesting and challenging than his attempts to report back to his client, who doesn’t answer his private phone even as everyone around Harry is demanding information about the case he doesn’t feel he can share. Grade-A Connelly. The dark forces arrayed against the hero turn out to be disappointingly toothless, but everything else clicks in this latest chapter of a compulsively good cop’s odyssey through the City of Angels and its outlying neighborhoods and less angelic spirits.