Books like Bosch?
October 18, 2021 1:55 PM   Subscribe

Do you have any recommendations for books like the Bosch series by Michael Connelly?

Tried and disliked: Lee Child, Jonathan Kellerman, Harlan Coben (EXTRA DISLIKE), Rizzoli and Isles, Raymond Chandler, James Patterson, Dennis Lehane.

I liked Patricia Cornwell’s early Kay Scarpetta books, but the later books are insane. I just really like Connelly’s style.

The last book recommendations I got on here were so good, thank you!
posted by dianeF to Media & Arts (18 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Laura Lippmann's Tess Monaghan novels scratch a similar itch for me, and I think their writing styles have a lot in common. Her plots haven't gone really off the wall the way some other mystery series have either.
posted by Ideal Impulse at 1:58 PM on October 18, 2021 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you! Also forgot to add - I really like the Sue Grafton mysteries.
posted by dianeF at 2:21 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


Spenser novels by Robert B. Parker? Spenser is a Boston-area P.I (and former State cop), and the books substantially feature his best friend, an underworld figure (and fellow boxer) who, like Spenser, lives by an immutable code of honor, as well as Susan Silverman, Spenser's partner who is, before too many books pass, a psychiatrist. You may recall the 1980s TV series "Spenser: For Hire," or the recent Mark Wahlberg movie on Netflix that both featured the characters.

Parker later adds two additional series featuring Jesse Stone (disgraced LAPD Homicide detective turned small-town police chief in coastal Massachusetts) and Sunny Randall, another Boston cop turned PI. Parker wrote around 40 Spenser books, about a dozen Stone books, and about half as many Parker books, and I read all of them last year and earlier this year. The Randall series eventually folded into Stone's books, as she was mainly created as an idea for a TV show that never happened. Both the Spenser and Stone series continue to get new volumes under new writers, and many main and side-characters will cross paths.

The first book is a bit longer and different from the rest of the Spensers, but the writer found his formula by the second.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:22 PM on October 18, 2021 [2 favorites]


I like Coben (well, the Bolitar books, anyway) and Lehane, so my taste is suspect, but you might try Stuart McBride's Logan McRae series. They are sometimes very dark and very graphic--moreso than Connelly, I think--but a similar police procedural series with a lead character who sometimes clashes with his bosses and pays the price for that. Set in Scotland, though, so a very different atmosphere and different terminology than Bosch's LA.

Seconding the Tess Monaghan books by Lippmann. I started reading her when I ran out of Connelly books, and although the main character isn't a cop, I did find the writing style and plotting to be similar.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 2:59 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


Oh, one other series to look at. It's been a long time since I've read them, but I really enjoyed the Sonora Blair books by Lynn Hightower. There's a scene in Flashpoint that has stayed with me since I first read it 25 years ago. Like Bosch, an urban police procedural, and a gritty one.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 3:14 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Lawrence Block, specifically the Matt Scudder series (although I think all of his stuff is worth reading.)

Michael Koryta would be worth a shot, although he doesn't do much series work.

A bit old school, but definitely the next step on the literary path from Chandler to Bosch and other contemporary crime novelists, Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer series.

Robert Crais, mostly the Elvis Cole series. (Elvis has a partner named Joe Pike & Crais has written some "Joe Pike" novels that I would probably skip if you're not into Lee Child.)

My own take is that Connelly's style is almost invisible to non-existent (in a good way), so again pretty old school but you might like Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels, as IMO McBain's got a similar style.
posted by soundguy99 at 3:39 PM on October 18, 2021 [2 favorites]


Robert Crais
Rachel Howzell Hall
Matt Coyle
posted by calgirl at 4:03 PM on October 18, 2021 [2 favorites]


Early Robicheaux novels, up to maybe 2013? If you do audiobooks, the Will Patton ones are excellent -- though I'd avoid above 23.
posted by dobbs at 4:07 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


I know you said you hate Jonathan Kellerman, and, full disclosure, his family was my family neighbor as a kid, but have you considered his wife, also a crime/mystery author, Faye Kellerman?
posted by atomicstone at 4:31 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


2nding spenser. They're fantastic and have a similarly smart grit and underbelly feel of Bosch. I also really like Travis Mcgee by Macdonald. I'm currently working my way through the doc Ford series by randy Wayne white. 2nding the Scudder books as well. They're very similar to Bosch. For what it's worth Nero Wolfe and Sherlock Holmes are always worth a reread but lack the dirty grime of the Bosch series.
posted by chasles at 6:42 PM on October 18, 2021 [2 favorites]


John Sanford has two series that you might like. Of the two I liked the Virgil Flowers series better.
posted by MadMadam at 7:48 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


The Inspector Rebus books (set in Edinburgh) by Ian Rankin.

An older series, the Brady Coyne books by William G Tapply. The character is a Boston lawyer who gets involved in mysteries but it’s very low key in a Sue Grafton kind of way.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:02 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


As my name suggests, I’m also a fan of the Travis McGee books. Older, dated in many ways, surprisingly modern in some.
posted by PussKillian at 8:08 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Poor Jonathan Kellerman- I don’t hate him, my hate is reserved for Harlan. I can definitely give his wife a chance. And thank you for all the suggestions! soundguy99, Connelly’s invisible style is exactly what I like, good way to describe it. Thank you all again!
posted by dianeF at 8:20 PM on October 18, 2021


Putting in a plug for an Australian crime writer. I really love Peter Temple's Jack Irish novels. Starts with Bad Debts. Unfortunately only 5 books in the series (RIP Peter Temple), but The Broken Shore is also great.
posted by arha at 11:19 PM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


If you can handle a more rural setting, you might like C.J. Box's Joe Pickett series.
posted by box at 7:48 AM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


I love the Bosch books and I agree that you might really like Laura Lippmann.
posted by Countess Sandwich at 2:57 PM on October 19, 2021 [1 favorite]


Maybe Linda Castillo’s Kate Burkholder series?
posted by misterbrandt at 8:10 PM on October 24, 2021 [1 favorite]


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