Harry Bosch

Over to you, Andy.

Ah, well, from the world of, um, from the world of novels, my favorite, who is both brilliant and also a liability, is Harry Bosch from, um, the Michael Connelly crime series.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Michael Connelly, my favorite crime author.

Harry Bosch is just an absolute, um, uh, w- yeah, law unto himself, shall we say.

I've not read the books.

Oh, Neil.

Oh, my God

So I really tried to get serious about the real disease of alcoholism and the real struggles that alcoholic people have.

Because the fact is that, especially in the early 90s, I mean in the late 80s and the early 90s, a lot of South African police men and women were struggling with PTSD and some of them drank to help them cope with that so it was credible but I had to make it as credible as I could possibly do that and make it a little bit different from the Harry Bosch's and the all the other alcoholic cop characters out there so that was my way to try and bring something new to it and I still try and do that to this day

I'm remembering back to, I think it was about 2017, when I saw you at a Kingsmeade book festival.

And I think you were promoting Fever, a standalone book.

If Jack Reacher finds a bad guy at the end of a book, Jack Reacher shoots the bad guy in the head and then goes and gets a cup of coffee.

Uh, if it's a police detective like Harry Bosch, he finds a bad guy, he arrests him and there's a trial.

But, you know, so the characters in some ways to take the, dictate the action if you're writing true to what that character will do, you know? So, uh, sometimes you can be surprised that way if you've a set idea for a plot and you think, "Well, the character won't do what I want them to do." Well, it's maybe that's not the character you've written.

Mm.

Mm-hmm

... that, uh, is totally connected to you, and I haven't interfered with it.

Um, I was remember I was reading, uh, again, Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, and I read them out of order, and I was reading one book, and there's a bit where, and it was one of the early books, think it might've been The Black Echo, the first one, which is a masterpiece, but there's a bit where Harry, uh, Harry Bosch is standing in front of the mirror, and, you know, he's combing his hair and he, uh, Michael described his aquiline features and, you know, heroic jaw.

And then there's a bit where Harry Bosch combs his mustache, and I nearly dropped the book.

He was born Hieronymus Van Acken, but he would sign his name Hieronymus Bosch because he was from Den Bosch.

And that's who Harry Bosch, the fictional detective, is named after.

Is it or are you? No, genuinely.

It's true.

I got from, um, Titus, I got from the actor Titus Welliver.

He plays Harry Bosch on an Amazon series of the same name, Bosch.

And it's one of my favorite books from an author named Michael Connolly, right? Harry Bosch, he wrote like 25 novels of that same character.

I think he's an Australian actor, isn't he? Yeah, he's an actor, Titus Welliver, yeah.

Yeah, but isn't he, is he not Australian originally?

No one wants Detective Stillwell to pay any attention or to work on this crime, but, you know, he's dogged, as they often are when they're detectives.

And we also get the fun crossover, so we see a little bit of Renee Ballard and a glimpse of Harry Bosch, which if you're a fan like me, you will appreciate.

It's like visiting old friends.

Yes.

And there's always a jazz component.

If you look at Bosch, he likes jazz.

John Connolly's character is named Charlie Parker, and they call him Bird in his books.

And that's after the great Charlie Parker.

But our next example offers a really fascinating contrast within the exact same genre of lone detectives.

Yes, let's talk about Harry Bosch.

I want to introduce Michael Connelly as character, Harry Bosch, who started his literary life way back in the 1992 novel, The Black Echo.

Bosh is a veteran LAPD homicide detective, and the research gives us the specific psychological scars that forged his code.

You have his harrowing experiences as a tunnel rat in the Vietnam War.

That is such a heavy, defining mantra.

It dictates every single action he takes.

But here is how the Bosch franchise is completely different from the Reacher model.