Michael Connelly Biography

Michael Joseph Connelly was born on July 21, 1956, in Philadelphia, USA. He moved to Florida with his family at the age of 12. He grew up and completed his education there.

Connelly’s foray into thrillers is mainly because of his mother. Connelly’s mother, a fan of mystery novels, introduced her son to the world of thrillers at an early age.

Some Interesting Story Behind Michael Connelly Becoming A Writer

At the age of 16, Connelly used to work in a hotel. One day, on his way home from the hotel, he saw a man throwing something in the bush. He went to the bush and saw a gun wrapped in a shirt. He left it there and followed the man. He saw the man enter a bar. Then he returned home and told everything to his father. The next morning, Connelly and his father went to the bar with the police, but the man had already left. Through that incident, he became interested in police investigation.

Apart from this, there is another story which acted as a trigger for his debut as a writer.

When Michael Connelly went to university, his subject was “Construction Management”. After the release of his first exam results, he got very poor marks. Then, to relax his mind, he went to the cinema. The movie was an adaptation of a story written by Raymond Chandall, titled “The Long Goodbye”. After watching the movie he decided to become a writer of mystery novels. He then changed the university and was admitted to The University of Florida. There, he chose journalism as a major and creative writing as a subsidiary subject. After completing his graduation in 1980, he started his career as a crime reporter. He made his debut as a writer while at the Los Angeles Times.

So far 38 books of the author have been published. His first published book was “Black Echo” (1992). He won the “Mystery Writer of America Edgar Award” for the first book.

He has won many awards, including the Los Angeles Best Mystery Thriller Award, Diamond Dagger Award, Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Falcon Award (Japan), Grand Prix Literature Award (France), Caliber Award (France), Berry Award, and Narrow Award.

Michael Connelly’s books have sold nearly 80 million copies and have been translated into 43 languages. Mickey Holler, Harry Bosch, and Renee Ballard are the author’s world-famous crime thriller series. Harry Bosch is so famous that he has written 24 books in this series for 31 years!!

Several movies have been made from famous books. These include Blood Work, The Lincoln Lawyer, Bosch, Bosch Legacy, City of Angels, etc.