Michael Connelly, 1956- , married, a daughter, LA resident, full time author.
From the web site of the bestselling author:
"Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the Books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. [He read all his works in one week.] Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing... After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat… In 1986 he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. [This story] was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing,… and moved Connelly up to a job as crime reporter for the LA Times, bringing him to his literary hero's city.
"After three years on the crime beat, Connelly began writing his first novel, The Black Echo, featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. Based in part on a true crime that had occurred in LA, it was published in 1992 and won the 'Edgar Award for best first novel' by the Mystery Writers of America. He followed up with three more Bosch books, The Black Ice, The Concrete Blonde, and The Last Coyote, before publishing The Poet, a thriller with a newspaper reporter as protagonist in l996 [Anthony Award, Novel]. In 1997, he went back to Bosch with Trunk Music, followed by Blood Work (1998) [Anthony Award, Novel], Angels Flight (1999), Void Moon (2000), and A Darkness more than Night (LA Times 'Best Books of 2001')."
Interviews in 1997 and 1998 yielded these gems: "When it comes to the mystery novel the writer must be inclined to write what he does not know and never wants to. The art of the mystery is the art of turning chaos into calm." "[Mystery] is not about the solution to the puzzle but the act of putting the pieces together." "I think about what I want to do with my investigator this time... My job is to tell a story." "I write hard-boiled crime novels about a tough and unforgiving world… about hardened men searching for something." "Hieronymus Bosch was a 15th century painter who created richly detailed landscapes of debauchery and violence and human defilement… Many writers, including Raymond Chandler, drew the names of their characters from literature and art."
His next book is another Harry Bosch story called City of Bones (2002). Connelly wants to keep the Harry Bosch series fresh by bringing the portrayal of his investigator to a fully realized and understood human being.
The Concrete Blonde (1994) reviewer notes it is a police procedural of "crackling authenticity, as well as a worthy courtroom drama. And finally it is a cunningly conceived mystery in which, in the Agatha Christie tradition, a series of quite convincing suspects are set up and cast aside before the ultimate perpetrator is revealed."
Discussion: Group noted that Connelly writes mostly about his character, not about the case. He produces detail-layered characters. The book was generally well-liked and enjoyed. The author tries to end each chapter with a hook to keep the reader moving. There are also loose ends in each series book that allow the author to readily continue the story of the main character. An observation on the title, that the female characters were all blondes who were "concrete", logical thinkers, as well as the reference to the victim who was literally in concrete. The psychological aspect was very linteresting as it featured the puzzle of similar murders committed after the "killer" had been himself killed by the protagonist. It was felt that some of Connelly's later works use coarser language, are harsher and more contrived.