Michael Connelly
in order.
Everybody counts or nobody counts — the definitive guide to reading Harry Bosch, the Lincoln Lawyer, and the rest of Connelly's interconnected Los Angeles.
Over 89 million copies worldwide
Copies sold
Michael Connelly was born in Philadelphia in 1956 and decided to become a crime writer after discovering Raymond Chandler while studying at the University of Florida. He spent years as a crime reporter, eventually covering the police beat for the Los Angeles Times, where he absorbed the detectives, courtrooms, and streets that would populate his fiction. His debut, The Black Echo (1992), introduced LAPD detective Hieronymus 'Harry' Bosch and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel.
Over three decades Connelly has built one of the most successful shared universes in crime fiction: Bosch, defense attorney Mickey Haller (his half-brother), detective Renee Ballard, and reporter Jack McEvoy all cross paths across more than 35 novels. A former president of the Mystery Writers of America, Connelly has seen his work adapted into the long-running Amazon series Bosch and its sequel Bosch: Legacy, Netflix's The Lincoln Lawyer, the Matthew McConaughey film, and Clint Eastwood's Blood Work — and he remains remarkably prolific, publishing roughly a book a year.
Where to start
Start with The Black Echo (1992) and read the Harry Bosch series in publication order — Bosch ages in real time and his career arc (LAPD, retirement, private work, the San Fernando PD, cold cases with Renee Ballard) only makes sense chronologically. If the full list feels long, a common fast track is The Black Echo, then The Concrete Blonde, then jump to The Lincoln Lawyer (2005) to meet Mickey Haller before returning to Bosch. From Dark Sacred Night (2018) onward, the Bosch and Renee Ballard series merge, so read The Late Show (2017) before that point. Publication order across all series is the single safest way to read Connelly, since characters and events flow freely between books.
Harry Bosch 24 BOOKS · IN ORDER
The flagship series following LAPD homicide detective Harry Bosch, a Vietnam-vet loner guided by one rule: everybody counts or nobody counts.
01
The Black Echo 1992
Bosch investigates the death of a fellow Vietnam 'tunnel rat' and uncovers a daring bank-vault heist in the Edgar-winning debut.
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02
The Black Ice 1993
The apparent suicide of a narcotics officer pulls Bosch across the border into a drug-cartel conspiracy.
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03
The Concrete Blonde 1994
While on trial for killing the Dollmaker serial killer, Bosch faces evidence that the murders never stopped.
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04
The Last Coyote 1995
Suspended and in therapy, Bosch reopens the coldest case of all — the 1961 murder of his own mother.
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05
Trunk Music 1997
A body in a Rolls-Royce trunk looks like a mob hit but leads Bosch to Las Vegas and back into Eleanor Wish's orbit.
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06
Angels Flight 1999
A prominent civil-rights attorney is murdered on LA's funicular railway, and the city threatens to burn.
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07
A Darkness More Than Night 2001
Retired FBI profiler Terry McCaleb's analysis of a murder points to an impossible suspect: Harry Bosch.
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08
City of Bones 2002
A dog unearths the decades-old bones of an abused boy, launching a case that changes Bosch's career.
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09
Lost Light 2003
Newly retired, Bosch works his first private case: a movie-set robbery tied to an unsolved murder.
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10
The Narrows 2004
Bosch chases The Poet, the FBI's most notorious escaped serial killer, in a sequel to Connelly's famous standalone.
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11
The Closers 2005
Back on the force in the Open-Unsolved Unit, Bosch reopens the 1988 murder of a teenage girl.
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12
Echo Park 2006
A confessing serial killer forces Bosch to face the possibility that he missed the man years earlier.
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13
The Overlook 2007
A physicist's execution-style murder and stolen radioactive cesium give Bosch one long night to find the truth.
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14
Nine Dragons 2009
A liquor-store murder connects to a Hong Kong triad — and then Bosch's daughter disappears.
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15
The Drop 2011
Bosch juggles a cold-case DNA anomaly and the politically explosive death of a councilman's son.
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16
The Black Box 2012
Twenty years after the 1992 riots, Bosch finally chases down the murder of a Danish photojournalist.
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17
The Burning Room 2014
A victim dies a decade after being shot, handing Bosch and a new partner a ten-year-old open homicide.
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18
The Crossing 2015
Retired again, Bosch crosses the aisle to investigate for his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller.
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19
The Wrong Side of Goodbye 2016
A dying billionaire hires Bosch to find a possible heir while he volunteers as a San Fernando cold-case detective.
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20
Two Kinds of Truth 2017
Bosch goes undercover in a pill-mill operation while an old conviction of his comes under attack.
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21
Dark Sacred Night 2018
Bosch teams up with LAPD detective Renee Ballard for the first time on the cold case of a murdered runaway.
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22
The Night Fire 2019
Bosch and Ballard pursue a case secretly kept by Bosch's late mentor for twenty years.
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23
The Dark Hours 2021
Ballard, with Bosch's help, links a New Year's Eve killing to an unsolved case from his old files.
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24
Desert Star 2022
Bosch joins Ballard's cold-case unit as a volunteer to finally close the case that haunts him most.
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Mickey Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) 7 BOOKS · IN ORDER
Legal thrillers starring Mickey Haller, the defense attorney who works out of the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car — and Harry Bosch's half-brother.
01
The Lincoln Lawyer 2005
Haller lands the paying client of a lifetime — a Beverly Hills playboy accused of assault — and realizes he may be defending pure evil.
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02
The Brass Verdict 2008
Haller inherits a murdered colleague's entire practice, including a Hollywood double-murder case, with Bosch circling the edges.
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03
The Reversal 2010
Haller switches sides to prosecute a retried child-murder case, with Bosch as his investigator.
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04
The Fifth Witness 2011
A foreclosure client is accused of murdering the banker taking her house.
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05
The Gods of Guilt 2013
Haller defends a digital pimp accused of killing one of Haller's own former clients.
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06
The Law of Innocence 2020
Haller must defend himself from a jail cell when a body turns up in the trunk of his Lincoln.
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07
Resurrection Walk 2023
Haller and Bosch work innocence cases, fighting to exonerate a woman convicted of killing a sheriff's deputy.
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Renee Ballard 6 BOOKS · IN ORDER
The series following relentless LAPD detective Renee Ballard, exiled to Hollywood's overnight 'late show' shift and later head of the cold-case unit; it merges with the Bosch series from book two onward.
01
The Late Show 2017
Ballard's solo debut: two cases from a single night shift she refuses to hand off at dawn.
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02
Dark Sacred Night 2018
Ballard finds Harry Bosch digging through her station's files, and an unlikely partnership begins (crossover with the Bosch series).
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03
The Night Fire 2019
Ballard and Bosch take on a stolen murder book from Bosch's late mentor (crossover with the Bosch series).
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04
The Dark Hours 2021
A New Year's Eve murder and a serial-rapist tag team push Ballard to her limits (crossover with the Bosch series).
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05
Desert Star 2022
Ballard recruits Bosch for the LAPD's revived cold-case unit (crossover with the Bosch series).
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06
The Waiting 2024
Ballard's cold-case unit ties a surfer's stolen badge to the Pillowcase Rapist, with Bosch's daughter Maddie joining as a volunteer.
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Jack McEvoy 3 BOOKS · IN ORDER
Thrillers following crime reporter Jack McEvoy, who has a knack for landing at the center of serial-killer stories.
01
The Poet 1996
McEvoy investigates his twin brother's suicide and uncovers a killer who stages cop deaths with Poe quotes — Connelly's breakout standalone-turned-series.
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02
The Scarecrow 2009
Laid off from the LA Times, McEvoy chases one last story and attracts the attention of a data-center predator.
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03
Fair Warning 2020
McEvoy tracks a killer who stalks victims through their consumer DNA-test data.
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Standalone books by Connelly 3 BOOKS · BY YEAR
In publication order — read these in any order you like.
01
Blood Work 1998
Retired FBI profiler Terry McCaleb receives a heart transplant, then learns his donor was a murder victim — and her killer is still out there.
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02
Void Moon 2000
Cat burglar Cassie Black leaves prison behind for one last Las Vegas job that goes catastrophically wrong.
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03
Chasing the Dime 2002
A scientist's new phone number keeps ringing for a missing escort, and he can't stop pulling the thread.
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The movies READ IT BEFORE YOU WATCH IT
Blood Work 2002
Based on: Blood Work
Feature film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood as Terry McCaleb.
The Lincoln Lawyer 2011
Based on: The Lincoln Lawyer
Hit film starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller.
Bosch 2014
Based on: The Harry Bosch novels
Amazon Prime's seven-season flagship series starring Titus Welliver; one of the longest-running streaming crime shows ever.
Bosch: Legacy 2022
Based on: The later Bosch novels
Sequel series with Bosch as a private investigator working alongside attorney Honey 'Money' Chandler and his daughter Maddie.
The Lincoln Lawyer 2022
Based on: The Mickey Haller novels (starting with The Brass Verdict)
Netflix series starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller.
Ballard 2025
Based on: The Renee Ballard novels
Prime Video spin-off starring Maggie Q as Renee Ballard, continuing the Bosch universe.
Frequently asked questions
What order should I read the Bosch series in?
Read the Harry Bosch books in publication order, starting with The Black Echo (1992) and running through Desert Star (2022). Bosch ages in real time and his career moves — LAPD, retirement, private work, San Fernando PD, cold cases — happen sequentially, so publication order is the intended reading order.
How many Harry Bosch books are there?
There are 24 novels in the core Harry Bosch series through Desert Star (2022), and Bosch also appears heavily in several Mickey Haller and Renee Ballard books, including Resurrection Walk (2023) and The Waiting (2024). Counting every book he appears in, the number climbs past 30.
Are the Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer books connected?
Yes — Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller are half-brothers who share the same father, and they appear in each other's books frequently, starting with The Brass Verdict (2008). Reading everything in publication order across both series is the cleanest way to catch every crossover.
Is the Bosch TV show the same as the books?
Amazon's Bosch adapts storylines from many of the novels but remixes their order and sets everything in the present day, so the show and books diverge in details. You can enjoy either independently — many viewers start the books after finishing the series and find plenty of new material.
Where does Renee Ballard fit into the Bosch reading order?
Read The Late Show (2017), Ballard's solo debut, after Two Kinds of Truth. From Dark Sacred Night (2018) onward, the Ballard and Bosch series effectively merge into one storyline, continuing through The Dark Hours, Desert Star, and The Waiting.