Top 10 best books by Michael Connelly

Novels written by Michael Connelly are an excellent page-turners, well-written crime stories with interesting plots, great dialogues and memorable characters. That is why I recommend them to anyone who asks me "what to read?". If you are also looking for a new book or do not know this author  yet, see my list of Michael Connelly's best novels.

In many interviews he says that Raymond Chandler inspired him to become an crime and detective author. Michael Connelly studied journalism and creative writing on the University of Florida. After graduation, he began working as a crime reporter and wrote mostly about crime beat. He was also worked as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Everything has changes when he published the first book with LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch in 1992 titled The Black Echo. It won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Since than this author has written 17 more books with Hieronymus Bosch in the lead role.

But Harry Bosch series is not the only one, which he creates. Michael Connelly bibliography includes also standalone novels and others series (ex. with Mickey Haller or Jack McEvoy). All his fiction books are very popular in the world - they have been translated into over 30 languages and have won many awards! I think that Hollywood also helped this writer. When Lincoln Lawyer movie had a premiere, many of movie-fans started to take interest in this author's detective novels. 

I like Michael Connelly's best selling books, because they always have expressing characters, interesting plots and good dialogues. I never get bored reaching for crime novels by Connelly. I particularly like the Bosch series, but this is not a ranking of the best books with this detective. Below is a general list of books which in my opinion are the best novels written by Michael Connelly.

See my ranking of top ten crime fiction books by Michael Connelly:
1. The Poet (see description)
2. The Black Echo (see description)
3. The Last Coyote (see description)
4. The Lincoln Lawyer (see description)
5. The Concrete Blonde (see description)
6. The Drop (see description)
7. The Black Box (the latest book by Michael Connelly - see description)
8. Angels Flight (see description)
9. Lost Light (see description)
10. Trunk Music (see description)

I choose the books which in my opinion are the best crime novels by Michael Connelly, but I encourage you to read  a series of Harry in chronological order. You can find the list of Bosch novels set in order for example on Wikipedia. If you are looking for full Michael Connelly's bibliography - see his website.

BTW - this year a new book by Michael Connelly will be out - called The Gods of Guilt. Publishing date is set on December 2! See more details >

What's your favorite Michael Connelly's novel? :)

Christmas presents ideas: best books for gifts

Christmas is getting closer and closer, that's why friends are asking me about some good new crime book or thriller, which they could buy as a gift for their dad, sister, son, aunt or grandfather :). Since I now have a blog, instead of responding them individually, I can give them a link to this post :).

I know that it's difficult to advise a specific title, not knowing anything about person who will get it. Besides, if the main criteria is the "novelty" of the book, I must base on the author's previous works, because I simply can't read all the latest novels which interest me as quickly as I would like to.

I would rather recommend a great book that was released e.g. a year ago, but then I hear the argument "he/she may already have this title".

So I looked through the list of newly published books and created a list of bestselling authors, whose names should be widely known. There is also no fear that it will be a poor novel, because these authors always guarantee a good reading experience. Even if one of them is in weaker form, he still manages to write in such a sugestive way, that is hard to divert attention from the novel :).

So which is the best book as a present for Christmas? :) Here is my list (in alphabetical order by author):

1. Zero Day by David Baldacci (see description)
2. The Affair by Lee Child (see description)
3. The Drop by Michael Connelly (see description)
4. Edge by Jeffery Deaver (see description)
5. V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton (see description)
6. The Litigators by John Grisham (see description)
7. 11/22/63 by Stephen King (see more about this novel in my previous post)
8. Kill Alex Cross by James Patterson (see description)
9. The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin (see description)

And finally – I pick one proposition for an exclusive gift. Do you know someone who constantly talks about the very popular Stieg Larson's trilogy – Millenium, and always say that one day he will buy it, and finally read it? You can get him Millenium for Christmas! :)

10.  Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy Deluxe Boxed Set: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Plus On Stieg Larsson (see description).

Why I decided to put the titles in alphabetical order? Because it is difficult to compare these books. Some people like King, so probably will be glad to recieve his latest novel, others prefer legal thrillers, so will be content, when they will see cover of newest Grisham's novel, still others want more action, that's why Jeffery Deaver or Lee Child will be the best choice for them (if you have 100% certainty that person, which you want to buy a gift to, didn't read any of Jeffery Deaver's book, see my selection of his the best top ten novels).

Each of these authors is a solid writer, which guarantees a good, enjoyable time while reading. So I encourage you to see the descriptions of each of these books. This will allow you to choose appropriate titles for your loved ones! :)