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Harry Bosch books in order: the complete series
Looking for Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books in order? Look no further!
Detective Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch is an LA cop working for the LAPD’s homicide detective division. A brooding detective with his own checkered history paired with an obsessive dedication to his work. What’s not to love?
The television tie-in series Bosch is one of the most watched original series on Amazon Prime, so thriller aficionados will delight in delving into where it all began for Connelly with his Bosch books and with over twenty in the series you’ll be spoilt for choice.
Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books in order:
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
1. The Black Echo (1992)
LAPD detective Harry Bosch is a loner and a nighthawk. One Sunday he gets a call-out on his pager. A body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mulholland Drive, Hollywood. At first sight, it looks like a routine drugs overdose case, but the one new puncture wound amid the scars of old tracks leaves Bosch unconvinced.
To make matters worse, Harry Bosch recognises the victim. Billy Meadows was a fellow ‘tunnel rat’ in Vietnam, running against the VC and the fear they all used to call the Black Echo. Bosch believes he let down Billy Meadows once before, so now he is determined to bring the killer to justice.
The Black Ice by Michael Connelly
2. The Black Ice (1993)
When a body is found in a hotel room, reporters are soon all over the case: it appears to be a missing LAPD narcotics detective, apparently gone to the bad. The rumours were that he had been selling a new drug called Black Ice that had been infiltrating Los Angeles from the Mexican cartel.
The LAPD are quick to declare the death a suicide, but Harry Bosch is not so sure. There are odd mysteries and unexplained details from the crime scene which just don’t add up. Fighting an attraction to the detective’s widow, Bosch starts his own maverick investigation, which soon leads him over the borders and into a dangerous world of shifting identities, police politics and deadly corruption.
The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly
3. The Concrete Blonde (1994)
When Harry Bosch shot and killed Norman Church – the ‘Dollmaker’ – the police were convinced it marked the end of the search for one of the city’s most bizarre serial killers.
But four years later, Norman Church’s widow is taking Bosch to court, accusing him of killing the wrong man. To make matters worse, Bosch has just received a note, eerily reminiscent of the ones the Dollmaker used to taunt him with, giving him a location where a body can be found.
Is the Dollmaker still alive? Or is this the work of a vicious copycat killer, determined to repeat the Dollmaker’s grisly feats and destroy Bosch’s career in the process?
The Last Coyote by Michael Connelly
4. The Last Coyote (1995)
Harry Bosch is down on his luck – his house is condemned in the aftermath of the earthquake, his girlfriend has left him and he has been suspended for attacking his superior officer.
To occupy time, he examines the old case files covering a murder which took place on October 28, 1961. The victim was Marjorie Phillips Lowe – his mother.
The case forces Bosch to confront the demons of the past, and as he digs deeper into the case, he discovers a trail of cover-ups that lead to the high-ups in the Hollywood Hills.
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
5. Trunk Music (1997)
Harry Bosch is back at the LAPD in Homicide after disciplinary leave. But his first case proves to be one of the most difficult.
In the wooded hills overlooking the Hollywood Bowl, he opens the trunk of a white Rolls-Royce and finds a corpse. It looks like a simple case of Trunk Music – the execution style of the Mafia where the victim is shot in his own vehicle – but the victim is LA movie producer Tony Aliso, and the mob weren’t the only ones after him.
Bosch finds himself up against the FBI – and back in the arms of a beautiful ex-felon. It’s starting to look like Harry’s first case back in Homicide is in danger of being his last.
Angels Flight by Michael Connelly
6. Angels Flight (1998)
Harry Bosch finds himself yet again in charge of a case that no one else will touch. This time his job is to nail the killer of hot shot black lawyer Howard Elias. Elias has been found murdered on the eve of going to court on behalf of Michael Harris, a man the LAPD believes guilty of the rape and murder of a twelve-year-old girl. Elias had let it be known that the aim of his civil case was not only to reveal the real killer but to target and bring down the racist cops who beat up his client during a violent interrogation.
Now it’s all down to Bosch – and he’s got to take a long, hard look at some of his colleagues in a police department that is rife with suspicion and hatred.
A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly
7. A Darkness More Than Night (2000)
Terry McCaleb’s enforced quiet lifestyle on the island of Catalina is a far cry from the hectic excitement of his former role as an FBI profiler. However, when small-time criminal Edward Gunn is found dead, McCaleb becomes embroiled in a disturbing and complex case leading him to cross the path of Harry Bosch.
This infamous detective has always teetered on the brink of darkness in order to get inside the head of the killer. Is it possible that he has stepped across that finely drawn line and embraced darkness?
City of Bones by Michael Connelly
8. City of Bones (2002)
When the bones of a boy are found scattered in the Hollywood Hills, Harry Bosch is drawn into a case that brings up dark memories from his past.
Unearthing hidden stories, he finds the child’s identity and reconstructs his fractured life, determined that he won’t be forgotten. At the same time, a new love affair with a female cop begins to blossom – until a stunningly blown mission leaves him in more trouble than ever before. The investigation races to a shocking conclusion and leaves Bosch on the brink of an unimaginable decision.
Lost Light by Michael Connelly
9. Lost Light (2003)
When he left the LAPD, Bosch took a file with him: the case of a production assistant murdered four years earlier during a movie set robbery. The LAPD thinks the stolen money was used to finance a terrorist training camp. Thoughts of the original murder victim were lost in the federal zeal, and when Bosch decides to reinvestigate, he quickly falls foul of both his old colleagues and the FBI.
When the private investigation enables him to meet up with an old friend, shadows from his past come back to haunt him.
The Narrows by Michael Connelly
10. The Narrows (2004)
Former FBI agent Rachel Walling is working a dead-end stint in South Dakota when she gets the call she’s been dreading for four years. The Poet is back. And he has not forgotten Rachel. He has a special present for her.
Harry Bosch is adjusting to life in Las Vegas as a private investigator and a new father. He gets a call, too, from the widow of a friend who died recently. Previously in his FBI career, the friend worked on the famous case tracking the killer known as The Poet. This fact alone makes some of the elements of his death doubly suspicious.
And Harry Bosch is heading straight into the path of the most ruthless and inventive murderer he has ever encountered.
The Closers by Michael Connelly
11. The Closers (2005)
Harry is back, assigned to the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit with his former cop ally and partner, Kizmin Rider. These detectives are the Closers. They are thrown into a politically sensitive and dangerous case when a white supremacist is connected to the 1988 murder of a mixed race girl.
The police department has changed, but one thing hasn’t – Harry’s nemesis, Irving. The former Deputy Chief has been pushed from power and given a virtually meaningless new role. Full of vengeance, Irving calls Harry a ‘retread’. He watches from the sidelines like an injured bear, hoping Harry will make a mistake…
Echo Park by Michael Connelly
12. Echo Park (2006)
In 1993 Homicide Detective Harry Bosch was assigned the case of a missing person, Marie Gesto. The young woman was never found – dead or alive – and the case has haunted Bosch ever since.
Thirteen years later, Bosch is back in the Open Unsolved Crimes Unit when he gets a call from the DA’s office. A man accused of two killings is willing to confess to several other murders in a deal to avoid the death penalty. One of his victims, he says, is Marie Gesto.
When investigating these previously unsolved crimes, Bosch begins to crack when he realises that he and his partner missed a clue that could have prevented the serial killer striking again.
The Overlook by Michael Connelly
13. The Overlook (2007)
When a physicist is murdered in LA, it seems the killer has no fear of publicity, leaving the body on the Mulholland overlook, a site with a stunning view over the city. And when it’s discovered that the victim turned over a quantity of a lethal chemical to his killer before he died, Harry knows he has more than just a single death to worry about.
Alongside the forces of Homeland Security, Harry realises he must solve the murder or face unimaginable consequences.
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly
14. Nine Dragons (2009)
The shooting of a Chinese liquor store owner in LA brings Harry Bosch back to the Rodney King riots and the moment a stranger gave a young cop sanctuary. Now the debt must be repaid, and Harry soon discovers the old man’s death was no ordinary hold-up.
Homing in on clues disregarded by the cops on the scene, Harry builds a picture of corruption and intimidation, with the local triads at the heart of it. But as he tries to build a case and breach the impenetrable wall of silence in the local community, he finds he is taking a dragon by the tail – a dragon whose talons reach well beyond LA, and even the States.
Suddenly the most precious thing in Harry’s life is under threat, and he will need to leave the familiarity of his home turf, alone and without backup, if he is going to stop his worst nightmare from happening.
The Drop by Michael Connelly
15. The Drop (2011)
When evidence links a brutal murder in 1989 to a convicted rapist named Clayton Pell, the case should be watertight. Pell’s DNA was found on the victim – but he was only eight years old at the time.
This is not the only mystery Harry Bosch has to solve. A man jumped – or was pushed – from a window. The victim’s father is Councilman Irving, who’s been intent on destroying Harry’s career for years. Now Irving wants Harry to head up the investigation.
Harry uncovers traces of two of the city’s deepest secrets: a killer operating for as many as three decades without being detected, and a conspiracy that goes back into the dark history of the police department…
The Black Box by Michael Connelly
16. The Black Box (2012)
May 1992, and after four LAPD officers are acquitted following the savage beating of Rodney King, Los Angeles is ablaze. As looting and burning take over the city, law and order are swept away in a tidal wave of violence. But under threat of their lives, homicide detectives like Harry Bosch are still stubbornly trying to do their job. With no effective police presence on the streets, murder just got a whole lot easier – and investigating them a whole lot harder.
When Harry finds the body of a female journalist in an alley, he is forced to hand over the case to the Riot Crimes Task Force, knowing that it will never be solved.
Twenty years later, new evidence confirms her death was not a case of random violence but something much more personal. This time Harry is determined that the killer isn’t going to escape – even if it means stepping back into the darkest days of the city he loves…
The Burning Room by Michael Connelly
17. The Burning Room (2014)
In the LA Police’s Open-Unsolved Unit, not many murder victims die almost a decade after the crime. So when a man succumbs to complications from being shot by a stray bullet ten years earlier, Bosch catches a case in which the body is still fresh, but any other evidence is virtually non-existent.
Now Bosch and his new partner, rookie Detective Lucia Soto, are tasked with solving what turns out to be a highly charged, politically sensitive case. Starting with the bullet that’s been lodged for years in the victim’s spine, they must pull new leads from years-old information, which soon reveals that this shooting may have been anything but random in this gripping police procedural.
The Crossing by Michael Connelly
18. The Crossing (2015)
Six months ago, Harry Bosch left the LAPD before they could fire him, and then hired maverick Defense Attorney Mickey Haller to sue the department for forcing him out. Although it wasn’t the way he wanted to go, Harry has to admit that being out of the game has its benefits. Until Mickey asks him to help on one of his cases, and suddenly Harry is back where he belongs, right in the centre of a particularly puzzling murder mystery.
The difference is, this time Harry is working for the defense, aiming to prevent the accused, Da’Quan Foster, from being convicted. And not only does the prosecution seem to have a cast-iron case, but having crossed over to ‘the dark side’ as his former colleagues would put it, Harry is in danger of betraying the very principles he’s lived by his whole career.
The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly
19. The Wrong Side of Goodbye (2016)
Harry Bosch is working as a part-time detective in the town of San Fernando outside of Los Angeles, when he gets the invitation to meet with the ageing aviation billionaire Whitney Vance. When he was eighteen Vance had a relationship with a Mexican girl called Vibiana Duarte, but soon after becoming pregnant she disappeared.
Now, as he reaches the end of his life, Vance wants to know what happened to Vibiana and whether there is an heir to his vast fortune. And Bosch is the only person he trusts to undertake the assignment.
Harry’s aware that with such sums of money involved, this could be a dangerous undertaking – not just for himself, but for the person he’s looking for – but as he begins to uncover Vibiana’s tragic story, and finds uncanny links to his own past, he knows he cannot rest until he finds the truth.
Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly
20. Two Kinds of Truth (2017)
Harry Bosch works cold cases, helping out the under-funded San Fernando police department. When a double murder at a local pharmacy is called in, Bosch is the most seasoned detective on the scene.
But with experience come the ghosts of long-forgotten crimes. A death row inmate claims Bosch framed him, and that new DNA evidence proves it. The LAPD investigators say the case is watertight, leaving Bosch out in the wilderness to clear his name and keep a sadistic killer behind bars. There’s only one person he can trust to help prove his innocence: Mickey Haller, The Lincoln Lawyer…
As both cases tangle around him, Bosch learns there are two kinds of truth: the kind that won’t die and the kind that kills.
Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly
21. Dark Sacred Night (2018)
Daisy Clayton’s killer was never caught. In over ten years, there has been no breakthrough in her murder case.
Detective Renée Ballard has faced everything the LAPD’s notorious dusk-till-dawn graveyard shift has thrown at her. But, until tonight, she’d never met Harry Bosch – an ex-homicide detective consumed by this case. Soon, she too will become obsessed by the murder of Daisy Clayton.
Because Ballard and Bosch both know: every murder tells a story. And Daisy’s case file reads like the first chapter in an untold tragedy that is still being written – one that could end with Ballard herself, if she cannot bring the truth to light…
The Night Fire by Michael Connelly
22. The Night Fire (2019)
A judge is murdered in a city park. Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer, defends the man accused.
A homeless person is burned alive. Detective Renée Ballard catches the case on the LAPD’s notorious graveyard shift.
Harry Bosch is left a missing case file by his mentor who passed away. He was the man who taught Bosch that everybody counts, or nobody counts. Why did he keep the case all these years? To find the truth – or bury it?
In LA, crime never sleeps – but in Ballard, Bosch and Haller, the fire always burns. Will it light the way – or leave their lives in ashes?
The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly
23. The Dark Hours (2021)
A murder in the middle of a street party seems a senseless tragedy. But the victim had a dark past which came back to haunt him.
Detective Renée Ballard connects the killing to an unsolved case last worked by ex-LAPD legend Harry Bosch. But then a new crime shatters the night shift…
The Midnight Men are a deadly pair of predators who stalk the city during the dark hours and disappear without a trace.Ballard once believed her job was to bring the truth to light. In a police department shaken to the core by protests and pandemic, both cases have the power to save her – or end her…
Desert Star by Michael Connelly
24. Desert Star (2022)
Detective Renée Ballard is given the chance to revive the LAPD’s cold case unit and find justice for the families of the forgotten. The only catch is she must first unravel an unsolved murder, or lose this opportunity of a lifetime…
Harry Bosch is top of the list of investigators Ballard wants to recruit. The ex-detective is a living legend – but for how long? Because Bosch has his own agenda: a crime that has haunted him for years – the murder of a whole family, buried out in the desert – which he vowed to close.
There you have it – Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch books in order! How many have you read? Let us know in the comments below…
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Almost read all the Bosch books absolutely the best, now its onto Haller
Read and reread all the Bosch books…….please Mr Connelly write some more! Tv series has been excellent too. Can’t wait for the last series to be finally filmed
RogerSmith
October 2020
Just finished Night Fire, having read all the previous books. Feel a bit disappointed, no more Bosch or Ballard. Might have to see what Mr Haller can offer, but I shall miss Harry. I have even been listening to the jazz albums he mentions, how sad is that? My wife tells me that Harry isn’t real! What does she know?
I have read all Harry Bosch books waiting for nextbook