© 2026 Western New York Public Broadcasting Association

140 Lower Terrace St.
Buffalo, NY 14202

Toronto Address:
130 Queens Quay E.
Suite 903
Toronto, ON M5A 0P6


Mailing Address:
Horizons Plaza P.O. Box 1263
Buffalo, NY 14240-1263

Buffalo Toronto Public Media | Phone 716-845-7000
BTPM NPR Newsroom | Phone: 716-845-7040
Differing shades of blue wavering throughout the image
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Novelist Connelly Revisits His 'Crime Beat' Days

Connelly worked as a journalist before publishing his debut novel, <em>The Black Echo</em>, in 1992.
Connelly worked as a journalist before publishing his debut novel, The Black Echo, in 1992.

Before Michael Connelly spun fiction about crime, he wrote about the real thing as a journalist. Some of those stories are collected in a new, nonfiction title from Connelly, Crime Beat.

Connelly got his start at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., eventually getting short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize before moving on to the Times. Among the stories he covered were a Florida serial killer who posed as a fashion photographer to get closer to his victims and Toru Sakai, who was charged in 1987 with killing his wealthy father in Los Angeles and remains a fugitive today.

Connelly went on to author the bestselling Harry Bosch detective series. The next Bosch installment and his 17th novel, Echo Park, comes out in October.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.