Michael Connelly celebrated his 70th birthday last week, so it’s as good a time as any to discuss his legacy.

By my estimation, he’s an author who deserves to be remembered and read for generations, but there may be one missing piece for that to happen.

First the positive: For almost four decades, Connelly has chronicled the justice system in America’s second-largest city, during a period when the actions of the Los Angeles Police Department were flashpoints for the greatest social issues of our age. His two main characters, the half-brothers Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller, are two of the greatest fictional cops and lawyers ever created. His books are consistently well researched and carefully crafted, and have translated well into several television series. His descriptions of Los Angeles are a beautiful homage to a great and fascinating city.

So what’s missing?

A masterpiece.

It’s nearly impossible for a crimewriter to be read by successive generations. It helps if they’re revered as a stylist (Sadly, Connelly isn’t) but even the great wordsmiths can be forgotten. Already, it seems that Elmore Leonard is descending the rankings he once dominated. More than anything, an author needs that one magnificent novel that lodges in the public imagination and never leaves it. Beyond the quality of the book, the important consideration when talking about legacy is its instant recognition by the reading public.

Dashiell Hammett had The Maltese Falcon. Raymond Chandler had The Big Sleep. Ross Macdonald had . . . well, there you go. The creator of the Lew Archer series never produced that singular volume, and that’s probably why his following has shrunk.

Has Connelly created a masterpiece? You could argue the Bosch series is a masterpiece, but let’s restrict it to a single book.

Maybe it’s The Poet. Stephen King said this 1996 tome may prove to be a classic, and it still could be. The tale of newspaper reporter Jack McEvoy searching for his brother’s killer is Connelly’s longest work at 696 pages. It’s complex, psychologically probing and purely addictive, with just enough literary references to make it respectable to the tweedy set.

Thing is, The Poet doesn’t feature either Bosch or Haller. There’s not even a cameo appearance by the LAPD detective, even though he does take the lead in The Narrows, the sequel to The Poet. It stands to reason that Connelly’s masterpiece would have to be drawn from a series with at least one of his two greatest creations.

Maybe The Lincoln Lawyer itself is Connelly’s Sistine Chapel. When the first Mickey Haller book came out in 2005, it felt to me like a spring was finally released. You could tell that Connelly had been stashing away scraps of courthouse lore as he wrote his previous 15 novels and now he was ready to unleash them with his first book headlining a defense attorney.

The Lincoln Lawyer is probably Connelly’s most famous novel, given that it’s spawned a 10-novel series, a movie starring Matthew McConaughey, and a five-season series on Netflix. That’s a recipe for being remembered. Oh, and it’s also a corker of a novel – fast-paced, twist-ridden, and anchored by a fantastic main character. It’s definitely a candidate.

And yet, and yet. And yet Haller just isn’t Bosch. Once Connelly found his footing with the Harry Bosch series – I’d say in Book 3 – Connelly churned out about 10 novels that are breathtaking in their plotting, character-development, research and entertainment. The consistency of these books is unparalleled in crime fiction. Surely then, Connelly’s great novel must be found among Books 3 to 13, right?

I can narrow it down to three options, all of them magnificent in the brilliance of their plots:

The Concrete Blonde. In Connelly’s third novel, Bosch is being sued for wrongfully killing a man identified as a serial killer known as the Dollmaker. In the middle of the case, a body turns up bearing all the signatures of a Dollmaker murder. She was murdered after Bosch had killed his suspect. As the case proceeds, Bosch has to prove someone else killed this victim and that he got the right guy. The plot is brilliant. And The Concrete Blonde gets bonus points as it’s the only novel to feature Honey Chandler, one of Connelly’s best characters.
Trunk Music. Book 4 in the series finds Bosch investigating the murder of a sleazy movie-maker with mob connections, and the investigation leads to the underside of Las Vegas. The magnificence of this plot lies in how perfectly Connelly plays the reader, leading us down one path so masterfully that we don’t even suspect it may be a decoy. The story demonstrates Bosch’s devotion to Eleanor Wish, revealing more than ever Bosch’s fealty to those he loves.
Angels Flight. The sixth Bosch book is Connelly’s great homage to Los Angeles. A lawyer is murdered while he is suing the LAPD on claims of torture, and fingers are immediately pointed at the officers involved in the case. Deputy Chief Irvin Irving chooses Bosch to lead the tangled investigation, which reveals police brutality and corruption on many levels. The novel shines because of the brilliant plot and the touching relationship between Bosch and his former partner Frankie Sheehan. With an L.A. landmark as its title, this novel features some of Connelly’s greatest writing about Los Angeles, from Angels Flight itself to the mean streets of South L.A. (turf where Bosch rarely ventures). The description of the iconic Bradbury Building is magnificent.

These are three of the finest crime novels I’ve read, and few of even the best crime fiction writers have equaled them. I believe one problem is none of the three stands out as a seminal work. None is famous. Slabs of each were sliced off and added to the Bosch TV series, but that did nothing to implant any of these titles in the public mind.

If there’s a single book Connelly will be remembered for, it will probably be The Lincoln Lawyer. In terms of quality, I’d put it on a par with the three best Bosch novels, and slightly ahead of The Poet. It may have staying power. The movie and the Netflix series will be in reruns for a long time, and that in itself will continue to draw readers to the Lincoln Lawyer series, especially the eponymous first novel.

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Hi. I’mPeter Moreira and my latest novel is the technothriller Presidio Biotech.I’m also the author of The Haight Mystery Series— retro mystery novels set in San Francisco in the late 1960s. Go to my home page to join my mailing list and receive a free prequel novella.