What I learned reading every Harry Bosch book

No time for a best books list when you're slamming genre fiction

I was going over my “books read in 2023” and an embarrassingly large share of them — well over half — were written by a single author, Michael Connelly.

Back in 2011, I saw the “Lincoln Lawyer” movie that’s based on one of his books, and I used to enjoy several David E. Kelly legal dramas. So when I found out over last Christmas break that there was a David E. Kelly “Lincoln Lawyer” Netflix show, I decided to check it out. Then I read the book. Then I realized it was by the author of the Harry Bosch book series, which I’d heard about from friends who are fans of the Amazon show.

So, I read “The Black Echo” and started watching the Bosch show. And then I read all the Bosch books. And all the Lincoln Lawyer books. And the Renee Ballard books. As it turns out, Connelly’s books have a lot of crossover between series.

Mainlining 30 years worth of crime fiction in 12 months has been a somewhat head-spinning experience. Because while the promise of this kind of genre work is that not too much will ever change, the fact is that attitudes toward things like crime and policing have shifted a lot over the last three decades.