By Michael Connelly
Little, Brown and Company
Hardcover, Paperback and Large Print Editions

Crime Beat is a collection of true stories, organized into three sections: The Cops, The Killers, The Cases.

Before becoming a novelist, Connelly was a reporter covering the homicide beat. These vivid articles, written by Connelly the journalist, lead the readers past the yellow police tape following the investigators, the victims and the killers to tell their true stories. Any of these stories could become fodder for future escapades of Connelly’s fictional hero, Detective Harry Bosch.

Crime Beat Excerpt “It’s called trying to figure out what is what and going from there,” he says. The squad has a rotation system for assigning cases to lead detectives. This time partners Russo and Allen are ‘up.’ They will be responsible for the case from start to finish. If it is not solved by the group effort in the next few hours, it will be theirs to work alone. © Michael Connelly Published with permission from Little, Brown & Co.

Although fascinating in its entirety, at times reading and re-reading accounts of the same crime became tedious. Written by anyone else, it is doubtful this tome would have been received as enthusiastically.

However, Connelly's writing talent shines through in any venue and Crime Beat provides the reader a glimpse into the seedy underworld of crime.

The first rule of writing is to write about what you know. Michael Connelly knows Los Angeles inside and out, including the newsroom, the LAPD, and the criminal elements in the city.

Bookworm's Briefing
Connelly, crime reporter-turned novelist, proves that indeed he knows his subject well. New readers expecting to find one story within the covers will be disappointed but die-hard Connelly fans will appreciate this collection of true fascinating background stories of murder and mayhem.