GETTING LONG IN THE SLEUTH
Over 25 years Harry Bosch has become one of literature’s most famous cops, but author Michael Connelly says his time is running out
The end is looming for one of the literary world’s great detectives. It turns out not even Harry Bosch can live forever. Down the line from New York, the gravel voice of Bosch creator Michael Connelly acknowledges the end is, if not imminent, starting to heave into view.
“I don’t plan too far ahead, but the writing is on the wall,” Connelly says.
The problem is that Connelly has aged Bosch in real time since he made his first appearance as the outsider LAPD detective in The Black Echo in 1992.
The fictional detective was born in 1950, which means he will be turning 70 next year. Not that he has any regrets about his method. Connelly believes tracking Bosch as he has aged has allowed the character to stay fresh.
“I made a decision to evolve him in real time so there is always something new from that,” he says. “I think writers who don’t do that might face the possibility of having the character go stale on them.”
There is certainly no evidence in the latest Bosch book, The Night Fire, that Connelly is bored with Bosch, even after 22 novels. The Night Fire again teams Bosch with Detective Renee Ballard, another outsider in the police department, turfed out to the night shift after filing a sexual harassment complaint against her superior.
Connelly teamed the duo up for the first time in last year’s Dark Sacred Night. They work cases together “off the books”. Ballard still has the power of a police badge, something no longer available to
Bosch, who has left the LAPD. But he still has the spark, and still has his mission that “everybody counts or nobody counts”.
Pairing up Bosch and Ballard is also typical of the Connelly approach. Every few novels he will throw in a new twist just to shake things up and keep it interesting for reader and author alike. “In the past I have done different things like that. In one book he [Bosch] finds out he is a father. That always seems to reboot things until the next big moment, three, four, five books later.”
Throwing in Ballard has invigorated is approach to writing. “There is this whole new dynamic of them working together, and that feels fresh to me and I’m excited to write about it,” he says. With his detective now pushing 70, Connelly also believes Ballard will be the one to keep Bosch’s “mission” alive.
Over the lifespan of the series, it means Bosch has changed to a degree as he has adapted to changing circumstances, but his core belief system remains intact.
“In many ways he hasn’t changed,” Connelly says.
“But he has also seen a lot over 25 years, so some of the hard edges have been sanded down. He has moved from it being a black and white world to a grey world.
“I think through being a father he has become a lot more empathetic. He has more empathy about why things happen and why people do bad things.”
Connelly also likes to keep himself up-todate with the latest developments in the world of law and order, which lends an authenticity to the world of Bosch. He finds it “fun”, and has a researcher who sends him the latest from law enforcement and justice department publications, as well as the latest scientific breakthroughs.
More importantly, perhaps, is that he has a close relationship with a “cadre” of detectives, including a female officer who is the inspiration for his Ballard character.
“Just like Harry in fiction, in real life they are trying to keep up with new things. That gets communicated to me.”
Connelly has sold more than 60 million books worldwide, and interest in the Bosch books only increased with the production of the Amazon Prime television series Bosch, starring Titus Welliver.
Connelly is involved with the writing of the show, and says seeing his books come to life on the screen is “fulfilling, ego-stroking, all that kind of stuff”.
“Some of the stuff we filmed came out of the first book I wrote, not even knowing if it was getting published, or would ever be published, so to see some of that being filmed, it’s just kind of amazing.”
Connelly jealously guards his morning hours to write and, despite everything else he does, including a podcast, the writing “always comes first”.
The Night Fire, Allen and Unwin, $32.99