For several years I refused to understand why my partner was obsessed by the novels of Michael Connelly. The context of his stories sounded awful: LA law enforcement, guns, murders, drugs, corruption. I might have enjoyed ‘Starsky and Hutch’ as a child in the 1970s but I have become a sophisticated and educated adult since then. That sort of seemingly testosterone-fuelled drama just didn’t interest me. I didn’t look too far into why it gripped my partner, other than as a sidebar to his general enjoyment of detective fiction. The latter is something else I try to kid myself that I don’t really share with him either. For while it’s true that I have never enjoyed reading Agatha Christie, the queen of the genre, I have always enjoyed watching the TV adaptations of her famous sleuths, especially Joan Higson’s, Miss Marple. I have also devoured reading the novels of PD James, with their DCI poet hero, Adam Dalgliesh, without ever once watching Roy Marsden’s on-screen version. And obviously I am a huge fan of Colin Dexter’s genius crossword puzzling, hard drinking, God-denying, Oxford elitist, Chief Inspector Morse, immortalised on screen by John Thaw. I remember reading the story of his demise in ‘The Remorseful Day’ in one sitting on a long haul flight across the Atlantic.

I eventually found out what all my other half’s fuss about Mr Connelly’s books was when I somewhat reluctantly sat with him through the 2011 film adaptation of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’. It helped from the start that the eponymous lead, Mickey Haller, was played by the very easy on the eye Matthew McConaughey.

The actor brings to charismatic life the LA defence attorney, as notorious for taking on any case regardless of his client’s guilt or innocence, as he is known for conducting most of his work from the back of his one of his Lincoln cars, usually chauffeured sequentially by former clients working off their legal fees. The courtroom scenes were simply electrifying and I could not wait to watch the TV adaptations of other stories in the series. In these, for twenty episodes across two seasons, Haller has been played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo who, while perhaps not having quite the same effortlessly suave sex-appeal of McConaughey, has unquestionably established longer-lasting credibility with his more developed and empathetically nuanced interpretation. He’s also a nice looking guy!

After that first movie hook-in, I moved on to Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels as brought to the screen by Titus Welliver – and read by the actor in the audiobook versions. The latter have become the only medium by which I access Connelly’s unabridged written words. My partner loves to read the books. I like to listen to them: as I drive up and down the M5 or when walking long stretches of Bodmin Moor (or on the treadmill in our garage-turned-fitness room when the weather is bad). So far this year, I have worked through ten novels this way, amounting to well over 120 hours of listening time.

Detective Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch is usually on the other side of courtroom to Haller, working tirelessly, and often on the edge of legality, to solve murder cases in Los Angeles and bring the perpetrators to justice. Harry has a problem with authority and is as much a pain to his superiors as he is to the criminals he doggedly tracks down. Harry has an astonishing nose for spotting the key detail buried deep in the infamous ‘murder book’ that leads to him unravelling a case. Alongside, he has unwavering moral integrity, courage and a belief in doing the right thing, even if that brings him into conflict with those who would like to bring his career to an end, or with those he loves.

Today, ‘Resurrection Walk’ – Connelly’s seventh Lincoln Lawyer novel – is published in the UK. It features both Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch, as well as Bosch’s former colleague, the head of ‘Open Unsolved’, Renee Ballard, played by Christine Lakin. The new book has already received great reviews, including of a dramatic final courtroom scene which is said to be the best ever written by Connelly. My partner is about to download it onto his kindle and, because I now get it, I will be downloading the audiobook just as soon as I finish this post.

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