If you’re not a fan of the award-winning author, Michael Connelly’s work, then you probably don’t know who Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch is. However, you may have heard of his brother, Mickey Haller, also known as The Lincoln Lawyer. Haller’s fictional character was portrayed by Matthew McConaughey in the 2011 American crime thriller, The Lincoln Lawyer, that’s based on and named after one of Connelly’s books.
More than 20 years after Bosch’s début in Connelly’s The Black Echo (published 2002), Bosch finally comes to life as a TV character after a long court case battle with Paramount Pictures. Connelly sold his TV rights to the fictional character many moons ago, and was finally able to buy the rights back for $3 million dollars, after a long 15-year ‘hands-off’ wait.
Over his 20-year reign as one of the most revered and followed crime/thriller fiction characters, the Harry Bosch series produced 20 books, all of which were published internationally. The books tell the life story of a former 1st Infantry Division soldier (Bosch) who joins the LAPD in 1972 at the age of 22, after an honourable discharge from Vietnam. We witness Bosch rise in rank on the force, deal with personal conflicts and demons from his past. We shared in Bosch’s early memories as an orphan, his divorce, his daughter, his ex-wife, new friendships and love interests, but most importantly we revelled in the brilliance of his detective work, as page-by-page, we solved some of the toughest and heart-wrenching cases, and humoured ourselves with Bosch’s recurring conflicts with authorative figures.
Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch series, and Titus Welliver who’s been cast to play Harry Bosch in the Bosch TV series.
The first pilot episode for the aptly named Bosch series has received the green light from Amazon, and is schedule to air next month. This is undoubtedly music to the trunks, oops, ears of avid Harry Bosch fans, since his book series officially ended in 2012. And soon our eyes will be able to delight in it, too.
Titus Welliver, known for his more recent TV roles in Sons of Anarchy (Jimmy O’Phelan) and The Good Wife (Glenn Childs), has been cast as Detective Harry Bosch.
Other TV/ Movie adaptations of Connelly’s written works include Blood Work, starring Clint Eastwood.
The complete Harry Bosch Book Series, in order of publication:
- The Black Echo (1992)
- The Black Ice (1993)
- The Concrete Blonde (1994)
- The Last Coyote (1995)
- Trunk Music (1997)
- Angels Flight (1999)
- A Darkness More Than Night (2001)
- City Of Bones (2002)
- Lost Light (2003)
- The Narrows (2004)
- The Closers (2005)
- Echo Park (2006)
- The Overlook (2007)
- The Brass Verdict (2008)
- Nine Dragons (2009)
- The Reversal (2010)
- The Fifth Witness (2011) (one page brief appearance; Mickey Haller series)
- The Drop (2011)
- The Black Box (2012)
- The Gods of Guilt (2013) (one page brief appearance; Mickey Haller series)
