Connelly Mines His Newswriting Days for TV

I’ve been reading Michael Connelly’s crime novels for many years, beginning with The Concrete Blonde (from 1994). Yet despite our having both attended various mystery-fiction events in the past, and my friend Ali Karim knowing him quite well, I don’t believe I had ever actually met him—until last week’s Bouchercon in New Orleans.

One morning, I decided to revisit the convention’s then-quiet book-sales room at the Marriott Hotel on Canal Street, just to see if there was anything else that needed to come home with me, when I heard somebody whisper, “I think that’s Michael Connelly over there.” Sure enough, when I looked up, I recognized the author’s distinctive combination of glasses, beard, and gray locks. I’m not usually one to interrupt celebrities when they’re about other business (though I did once stride boldly up to Jack Lemmon outside his office in Los Angeles, shake his hand, and compliment his movie-making career). And Connelly looked as if he was enjoying his solitude, just browsing the stacks of new and old books on offer.

Nonetheless, I took a deep breath and a chance. I walked over, told him who I was, and asked whether he would please sign his new novel, Nightshade … were I to conveniently have a copy in hand. He responded, with a smile, “That’s my job here.” So I immediately purchased the book, handed it over, and shortly thereafter walked away with a personalized message inside (“To Jeff: Good to meet you in person. Many thanks!”). What I didn’t know, was that there was a lengthy queue of his fans in the lobby outside that room, all waiting patiently for Connelly to ink their own books. I’d subverted the line without knowing it or feeling a moment’s guilt.

That experience came back to mind this morning when I read, in Deadline, about Connelly’s new TV project in the offing:

Before Michael Connelly (Bosch, Ballard) became a famous crime novelist, he was a crime reporter. His experience as a crime beat writer at Florida’s Daytona Beach News-Journal and the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun-Sentinel serves as inspiration for a drama series project in development at the new Paramount Television Studios run by former Skydance TV President Matt Thunell.

Connelly is co-creating the Untitled Florida Task Force series with playwright/TV writer Jim Leonard (Ray Donovan), who will serve as showrunner. …

Connelly got into crime reporting after graduating from [the] University of Florida. After the stints at the two Florida papers, he did one more job as a crime reporter, at [the] Los Angeles Times, before segueing to writing books. His Bosch novels have spawned a TV series franchise for Prime Video that includes mothership Bosch and offshoots Bosch: Legacy and Ballard. Connelly has executive produced all three as well as Netflix’s series adaptation of his novel The Lincoln Lawyer.

As a journalist myself, I very much look forward to seeing how Michael Connelly presents the pluses and minuses of that job on screen. To learn more about his reporting career, click here and here.