Michael Connelly Books in Order: All 43 Novels, Where to Start

Start with The Black Echo (1992) for Harry Bosch or The Lincoln Lawyer (2005) for Mickey Haller. The official site lists every series in published order and notes that many of Connelly’s main characters “appear together in books.” As of October 2026, that order runs to 43 novels, from The Black Echo to The Hollow, which went on sale on October 27, 2026. Below are the Michael Connelly books in order, four starting points, a list for each character and the screen adaptations.

Where to start with Michael Connelly

Each series has its own first book. Novel Suspects, a site run by Hachette Book Group, the parent of Connelly’s publisher Little, Brown, sorts the picks in its guide to which Connelly book to read first by taste, among them The Black Echo for starting at the beginning, The Lincoln Lawyer for legal thrillers, The Poet for reporter heroes, Blood Work for a standalone read (the official site files it under Terry McCaleb) and The Late Show for Renée Ballard’s backstory. The guide dates from 2019, so it predates the Catalina novels, which begin with Nightshade (2025). Four entry points, one per lead character, follow.

1. The Black Echo (1992), Harry Bosch. Connelly’s first novel, and the winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel, according to his official site. Wikipedia notes that the story drew partly on a real crime, and that Connelly took his detective’s name, Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch, from the Dutch painter. The case ties back to Bosch’s service in Vietnam.
2. The Lincoln Lawyer (2005), Mickey Haller. The entry point for the courtroom novels, the source of the 2011 film with Matthew McConaughey, and a partial source for the first two seasons of the Netflix series, according to Wikipedia. The title is Haller’s nickname: he runs his defense practice from a chauffeured Lincoln Town Car.
3. The Poet (1996), Jack McEvoy. Connelly’s first novel outside the Bosch series, and the one to read before The Narrows (2004), which the official site calls its sequel. It is also his first novel led by a newspaper crime reporter, the job Connelly held before he wrote fiction: he spent three years at the Los Angeles Times before The Black Echo, according to Wikipedia.
4. The Late Show (2017), Renée Ballard. Ballard’s solo debut, a year before she first shares a book with Bosch. It is also one of the novels the Prime Video series Ballard draws on, along with The Dark Hours and Desert Star, according to Wikipedia. Ballard works the overnight shift in Hollywood.

Michael Connelly books in order of publication

This table of Michael Connelly books in order has one row for each of the 43 novels Connelly published from 1992 to October 2026. Order and years follow the printable book list linked from the Novels page of his official site, which also settles the order within the eight years that brought two new novels. The character column repeats the major characters that each book’s own page on the official site names, so a crossover shows every lead.

Sources differ on two years. The novels table in Wikipedia’s Michael Connelly article dates Void Moon to 1999 and A Darkness More Than Night to 2000, though the same article’s text gives 2000 and 2001. The table keeps the official site’s 2000 and 2001, which match the Little, Brown dates Kirkus Reviews lists for both books. Neither changes the order. The count also matches the publisher: Little, Brown’s author note for The Hollow credits Connelly with forty-two earlier novels. The next novel, Daybreak, is due in May 2027 and is not counted.

Reading order by character

The Series Order page on the official site notes that many of Connelly’s main characters appear together, and it gives each one’s books in published order. The lists below follow it.

Harry Bosch books in order

The official Bosch list has 26 novels. Five of them, from Dark Sacred Night to The Waiting, also count as Renée Ballard books.

1. The Black Echo (1992)
2. The Black Ice (1993)
3. The Concrete Blonde (1994)
4. The Last Coyote (1995)
5. Trunk Music (1997)
6. Angels Flight (1999)
7. A Darkness More Than Night (2001)
8. City of Bones (2002)
9. Lost Light (2003)
10. The Narrows (2004)
11. The Closers (2005)
12. Echo Park (2006)
13. The Overlook (2007)
14. Nine Dragons (2009)
15. The Drop (2011)
16. The Black Box (2012)
17. The Burning Room (2014)
18. The Crossing (2015)
19. The Wrong Side of Goodbye (2016)
20. Two Kinds of Truth (2017)
21. Dark Sacred Night (2018)
22. The Night Fire (2019)
23. The Dark Hours (2021)
24. Desert Star (2022)
25. The Waiting (2024)
26. The Hollow (2026)

Bosch also has a role in four Lincoln Lawyer novels, The Brass Verdict, The Reversal, The Law of Innocence and Resurrection Walk, and brief parts in The Fifth Witness and The Gods of Guilt.

Lincoln Lawyer books in order (Mickey Haller)

1. The Lincoln Lawyer (2005)
2. The Brass Verdict (2008)
3. The Reversal (2010)
4. The Fifth Witness (2011)
5. The Gods of Guilt (2013)
6. The Law of Innocence (2020)
7. Resurrection Walk (2023)
8. The Proving Ground (2025)

Haller turns up in seven Bosch novels as well: Nine Dragons, The Crossing, The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Two Kinds of Truth, The Night Fire, Desert Star and The Hollow.

Renée Ballard books in order

1. The Late Show (2017)
2. Dark Sacred Night (2018)
3. The Night Fire (2019)
4. The Dark Hours (2021)
5. Desert Star (2022)
6. The Waiting (2024)

Ballard also appears in Resurrection Walk (2023), Ironwood (2026) and The Hollow (2026), and the official site lists her in Daybreak (May 2027).

Jack McEvoy, Terry McCaleb and the Catalina novels

• Jack McEvoy: The Poet (1996), The Scarecrow (2009) and Fair Warning (2020). He shares The Proving Ground (2025) with Haller and has small parts in A Darkness More Than Night and The Brass Verdict. FBI agent Rachel Walling, a lead in all three McEvoy novels, also carries into the Bosch books The Narrows, Echo Park and The Overlook.
• Terry McCaleb: the official site gives the former FBI agent no series list of his own, only three appearances: Blood Work (1998), A Darkness More Than Night (2001) and The Narrows (2004).
• Detective Sergeant Stilwell (the Catalina series): a Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective posted to Catalina Island leads Nightshade (2025), Ironwood (2026) and Daybreak (due May 25, 2027).
• Standalones: Void Moon (2000), with Cassie Black, who has a small part in The Narrows, and Chasing the Dime (2002), with Henry Pierce.

Crossovers worth reading in sequence

• The Poet before The Narrows, its sequel by the official site’s own label.
• Blood Work before A Darkness More Than Night, where McCaleb and Bosch share the lead.
• The Lincoln Lawyer before The Brass Verdict, the first novel whose official page lists Haller and Bosch together as major characters.
• The Late Show before Dark Sacred Night, the first Ballard and Bosch book.

For other long-running series, see more reading orders.

Nonfiction, short stories and audio dramas

• Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers is his one nonfiction book, a collection of his newspaper crime reporting from Florida and Los Angeles. The official site dates it 2006, the Little, Brown edition, and says it first appeared as a 2005 limited edition from SCV Publications; Wikipedia, citing the book’s copyright page, dates that first edition to 2004.
• Short-story e-books and audiobooks: Suicide Run: Three Harry Bosch Short Stories (2011), Angle of Investigation: Three Harry Bosch Short Stories (2011), Mulholland Dive: Three Short Stories (2012), The Safe Man: A Short Story (2012) and Switchblade: A Harry Bosch Short Story (2014). The three-story sets gather stories printed earlier, while Switchblade is an original Bosch story. The official site counts more than 20 Connelly short stories, most of them first published in anthologies.
• Audio dramas: The Safe Man, an eight-episode Audible Original that Connelly and Terrill Lee Lankford adapted from his 2005 story, with Jack Quaid and Titus Welliver in the cast, and its follow-up The Eternal Realm, written by Amber Dupre with Connelly as executive producer and released in September 2026.
• As guest editor: The Best American Mystery Stories (2003), Murder in Vegas (2005), The Blue Religion (2008) and In the Shadow of the Master (2009).

Michael Connelly TV series and movies, as of October 2026

• Blood Work (2002 film). Clint Eastwood produced, directed and played Terry McCaleb in the Warner Bros. adaptation, released in August 2002.
• The Lincoln Lawyer (2011 film). Matthew McConaughey played Mickey Haller in Brad Furman’s film of the first Haller novel, in theaters from March 18, 2011.
• Bosch (Prime Video). Titus Welliver played Bosch for seven seasons, from a 2014 pilot to a final season that premiered on June 25, 2021. Seasons drew on one to three novels each, from City of Bones in season 1 to The Burning Room in season 7.
• Bosch: Legacy (Freevee, then Prime Video). The sequel series, with Bosch now a private eye, premiered in May 2022 and ran three seasons, ending on April 17, 2025. It adapted The Wrong Side of Goodbye, The Crossing and parts of Desert Star and The Black Ice.
• The Lincoln Lawyer (Netflix). Manuel Garcia-Rulfo has played Haller since the series premiered in May 2022. Its four released seasons adapt The Brass Verdict, The Fifth Witness, The Gods of Guilt and The Law of Innocence, the last arriving on February 5, 2026. The fifth season, based on Resurrection Walk, will be the final one; filming wrapped in July 2026, and the official site listed no premiere date as of late October 2026.
• Ballard (Prime Video). Maggie Q stars as Renée Ballard, with Titus Welliver back as Bosch. All 10 episodes of season 1, which used Desert Star for a main storyline and a little of The Dark Hours, arrived on July 9, 2025. Prime Video renewed the series in October 2025 for a second season, which draws on The Waiting and went into production in March 2026; the official site gave no premiere date as of late October 2026.
• Bosch: Start of Watch (MGM+). Ordered in October 2025, this prequel casts Cameron Monaghan as Bosch in his rookie years on patrol, with Omari Hardwick as his training officer, a character created for the show. No novel is its direct source, and the official site billed it as coming soon to MGM+, with no date, as of late October 2026.

The newest and next Michael Connelly books

As of October 2026, the newest novel is The Hollow, the 26th book on the official Bosch list, which Little, Brown lists as on sale in hardcover on October 27, 2026; the official site gives November 5 for the UK and Ireland hardback. It takes Bosch back to MacLaren Children’s Center, where he lived as a boy, with Mickey Haller and Renée Ballard in smaller roles. It follows Ironwood (May 19, 2026), the second Catalina novel, in which Stilwell works a case with Ballard. Next is Daybreak, the third Catalina novel, due on May 25, 2027, according to both the official site and Little, Brown.

Frequently asked questions

What is the first Harry Bosch book?

The Black Echo, published in 1992, is the first Harry Bosch novel and Connelly’s first novel of any kind. The official Bosch list then runs to 26 books, ending, for now, with The Hollow (2026).

How many Michael Connelly books are there?

As of October 2026, Connelly has published 43 novels, from The Black Echo (1992) to The Hollow (2026), and Daybreak is due in May 2027. He has also published one nonfiction book, Crime Beat, along with short-story e-books and four anthologies he guest-edited.

Do you need to read Michael Connelly in order?

Not strictly, since each series has its own first book and Hachette’s Novel Suspects guide suggests a separate starting point for each. The official site lists each series in published order and notes that the main characters appear in each other’s books; the table above merges those lists into one order.

What order should I read Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer books?

The official site lists both series in published order and cross-references each character’s appearances. The Lincoln Lawyer (2005) arrives after 11 Bosch novels, and The Brass Verdict (2008) is the first book whose official page lists Haller and Bosch as major characters; after that the two keep appearing in each other’s novels, up to Resurrection Walk (2023) and The Hollow (2026).

When is the next Michael Connelly book coming out?

Daybreak, the third Catalina novel with Detective Sergeant Stilwell, is due on May 25, 2027. The official site says Renée Ballard appears in it as well.

Lead photo: Michael Connelly at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in April 2023. Photo: Tracie Hall, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).