After 30 years of writing bestsellers, “Bosch” and “Lincoln Lawyer” author Michael Connelly knows, “In television they want you in the writers’ room. In movies, they don’t want to know you.”
Harry Bosch is currently on view in two different guises: The Freevee series “Bosch: Legacy S2” began with Bosch, now a private investigator, trying to save his kidnapped daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz).
A very different, older Bosch — a 73-year-old cancer patient undergoing an experimental nuclear medicine trial – costars in Connelly’s new Lincoln Lawyer novel “Resurrection Walk” alongside his half-brother Mickey Haller. Bosch is driving the Lincoln for his sibling in order to qualify for the medical trial.
Bosch inhabits these two different spheres because they have always been thus. The Bosch books now number 24 and began in 1992. “Bosch,” the hit Amazon series, ran seven seasons (2014-2021) followed in 2022 by the “Bosch: Legacy” spin-off.
These different arenas work because, Connelly, 67, said in a Zoom interview, “of the characters. People are loyal to the characters.
“So, we always started with the idea that just really captured the essence of Harry Bosch: Take anything you need from the books, big plot, small plots, little moments. It’s all there for the taking.
“But the key is: Maintain loyalty to the character! That has worked for us. Some seasons we took from three different books, sometimes just one. Then we got a big pivot with ‘Bosch: Legacy.’ Harry Bosch is still the center of the wheel, but we really want to amp up, enlarge, the storytelling around ‘Money’ Chandler (Mimi Rogers) a lawyer who employs Bosch and his daughter Maddie Bosch. That is where we really go off into unexplored territory. And that makes it fun.
“In fact, in my books, Maddie wasn’t a cop — until she was a cop on the TV show.”
Agatha Christie famously killed off her beloved detective Hercule Poirot. Could Connelly ever kill Harry Bosch? Is that possible? Or unimaginable?
“Somewhere in the middle,” he answered. “I mean, it’s definitely possible. I’ve been given this amazing opportunity that I can write about this character evolving over decades against the city and a society that’s evolving over decades. It almost feels like a duty that I should end it at some point.
“You know, just have him like disappear when I disappear from the planet. I don’t know if it means he dies or not, but I want it to be tied up. I don’t think it should be a thing like, whenever I’m gone somebody else takes up the Harry Bosch story.”
“Resurrection Walk” will be released in print, eBook, and audiobook on Nov. 7, 2023. The audiobook will be read by Peter Giles (Mickey Haller) and Titus Welliver (Harry Bosch). “Bosch: Legacy S2” is now streaming on Freevee.
(Amazon.com)
Leave a Reply