Description
Book Description : From No. 1 bestseller Michael Connelly's first career as a prizewinning crime reporter--the gripping, true stories that inspired and informed his novels. Before he became a novelist, Michael Connelly was a crime reporter, covering the detectives who worked the homicide beat in Florida and Los Angeles. In vivid, hard-hitting articles, Connelly leads the reader past the yellow police tape as he follows the investigators, the victims, their families and friends--and, of course, the killers--to tell the real stories of murder and its aftermath. Connelly's firsthand observations would lend inspiration to his novels, from The Black Echo , which was drawn from a real-life bank heist, to Trunk Music , based on an unsolved case of a man found in the trunk of his Rolls Royce. And the vital details of his best-known characters, both heroes and villains, would be drawn from the cops and killers he reported on: from loner detective Harry Bosch to the manipulative serial killer the Poet. Stranger than fiction and every bit as gripping, these pieces show once again that Michael Connelly is not only a master of his craft, but also one of the great American writers in any form. Amazon.com Exclusive Before he became a bestselling novelist, Michael Connelly was a crime reporter, covering the detectives who worked the homicide beat in Florida and Los Angeles. In his vivid new book, Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers , Connelly leads readers past the yellow police tape as he follows the investigators, the victims, and the killers to tell the real stories of murder and its aftermath. Read an exclusive essay from Michael Connelly Michael Connelly's 1988 Los Angeles County Press Pass More from Michel Connelly Echo Park The Closers The Poet From Publishers Weekly The many fans of perennially bestselling mystery author Connelly will certainly lap up this collection of his articles written during his former life as a crime journalist in Florida and California. In three sections, The Cops, The Killers and The Cases, Connelly presents a wide variety of stories from the 1980s and early '90s, ranging from local crimes to national sensations such as the serial killer Christopher Wilder, one of the FBI's Most Wanted. With Wilder, for instance, readers watch Connelly build a portrait of a man who gained access to women in the Florida modeling and fashion scene by posing as a professional photographer with cunning charm, smooth talk and money. Connelly tells tales of double lives, failures of the criminal justice system and the shooting death of a 245-pound L.A. prostitute. The format of the book may disappoint some, as the inclusion of multiple reports about the same crimes often contain repetitive language. The author is strongest bringing quiet moments to life, such as the despair of parents hoping that a missing child will still turn up, or the patient, resigned professionalism of weary detectives. Devotees of Connelly's fiction will enjoy tracing the real-life roots of some of his plots. (May 8) Copyright c Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Connelly, best-selling and Edgar Award-winning writer of the Harry Bosch mystery series, writes about cops, criminals, and cold cases with an authority that stems in part from his first career, as a crime reporter for two newspapers: the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and, later, the Los Angeles Times . This is a collection of 22 of his nonfiction crime stories for those papers. The collection is divided into three sections: "The Cops," "The Killers," and "The Cases." A fascinating introduction dissects the moments in Connelly's reporting career that helped form him as a writer, with an emphasis on the importance of the telling detail. The crime stories that follow are filled with telling details, as in the tattoo of blue tears at the corners of the eyes of a cop who carries out body bags. The reader moves from Connelly's account of a week during which he was granted full access to a South Florida homicide squad, through a series on a serial killer who preyed on would-be models, to a consideration of victims, including a rookie LAPD officer shot to death and the parents of missing children, who can't get past the last place their daughters or sons were seen. This volume works on several levels: as a source of insight into Connelly's craft; as a collection of compelling true-crime stories; and as a great primer for journalists. Connie Fletcher Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Michael Connelly is a former journalist and has won every major prize for crime fiction. He lives in Florida. Read more
Features & Highlights
- From #1 bestseller Michael Connelly's first career as a prizewinning crime reporter--the gripping, true stories that inspired and informed his novels. Before he became a novelist, Michael Connelly was a crime reporter, covering the detectives who worked the homicide beat in Florida and Los Angeles. In vivid, hard-hitting articles, Connelly leads the reader past the yellow police tape as he follows the investigators, the victims, their families and friends--and, of course, the killers--to tell the real stories of murder and its aftermath. Connelly's firsthand observations would lend inspiration to his novels, from The Black Echo, which was drawn from a real-life bank heist, to Trunk Music, based on an unsolved case of a man found in the trunk of his Rolls Royce. And the vital details of his best-known characters, both heroes and villains, would be drawn from the cops and killers he reported on: from loner detective Harry Bosch to the manipulative serial killer the Poet. Stranger than fiction and every bit as gripping, these pieces show once again that Michael Connelly is not only a master of his craft, but also one of the great American writers in any form.
