The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Happy New Year! This is the place for discussing The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly, along with Thomas. Have a great time!

I have been a Harry Bosch fan for several years now. I read The Dark Hours in early April 2022.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

I have been reading Michael Connelley's books for 15 years. Here is my non spoiler review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I discovered Michael Connelly recently. I am currently reading #2 in the Renee Ballard/Harry Bosch series ( Dark Sacred Night). I am going to start the Dark Hours this weekend.

I've read only a couple of the Bosch series and hope to read more. I assume they are better read in order, aren't they? Or at least roughly in order, since they cover so much time. Any advice?

I've only been reading the Bosch books that feature Renee Ballard. I prefer to at least read the first book that the Renee character is introduced ( "The late Show"). That's just my preference because you get a good introduction to Renee and all her issues. The second book featuring Renee Ballard shows how Renee and Harry Bosch meet and start working together solving cold cases.
Realistically you can read these books as stand alone novels, it wont impact your understanding of the story or case that the characters are trying to solve. I don't think there would be any confusion reading these books out of order.
It can be confusing when looking at how these books are numbered in the series. For example The Dark Hours is #4 of 5 in Renee Ballard series but is also listed as book #23 of 24 in Harry Bosch series.

They can be read as stand alones, but starting with book 1 in the Ballard series would be a good choice.

I do like the Rene Ballard/Bosch books. Already read this one when it first came out. Good cases. Good partnership with Bosch.

I can't remember reading any Bosch or any Michael Connelly novels, but I have been watching the Bosch series on Amazon Prime. It is hit or miss with the library on what they have. When I have the time and money, I am going to check out our local used bookstore. But for now, most of my books come from the library and I was lucky to find this one.

Is the series on Amazon Prime good?

Peggy wrote: "Is the series on Amazon Prime good?"

Definitely, particularly if you are a Harry Bosch Fan as Titus Welliver is very good as too is Madison Lintzas his daughter Maddie. The original series was called Bosch (2014-21) and featured a particular book each season but NOT in chronological order. They have now released another series (20022-) titled Bosch: Legacy, also on Prime. I can't wait for the Renee Ballard series!!

My wife and I like both the books and the Amazon Prime series.
Some other series adapted from books that we Liked Longmire(Craig Johnson) and Three Pines(Louise Penny)

All these series sound great! I will definitely look for them on Prime

I've been bad. I jumped the gun on this, reading it over the holidays before Nancy set up the discussion and then I forgot to come back and share my thoughts. I'm a big fan of Michael Connelly and have read most of his Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller, Jack McEvoy and Terry McCaleb books. I have also watched every movie or TV show based on his books. As I said, big fan.

But this is my first opportunity to read a book from his Renée Ballard series. I've acquired copies of all of her books, just haven't read any of them, until now.

Without revealing any spoilers, this book is #4 in the Ballard series and focuses on two very interesting cases, one of which has ties to a cold case that Harry Bosh worked on before his retirement. This provides the motivation for Ballard and Bosch to start working together to solve them. Ideally, I would have liked to have read Ballard's books in order but, even so, this was a very satisfactory effort by Connelly.