Michael Connelly is the prolific crime writer behind both Prime Video’s Bosch and Netflix’s The Lincoln Lawyer. But while these two wildly popular shows might have brought Connelly’s work to the widest possible audience, they aren’t the only TV series he’s originated. Overall, he’s authored the source material for five small-screen projects, and counting.
In addition to being the connection between The Lincoln Lawyer and Bosch, Connelly has written other novels within the same literary universe, and has even developed his own TV series from scratch. Paramount is the latest major studio to tap into his wellspring of creativity, for an as-yet untitled crime show about a taskforce in Florida.
Still, Connelly’s Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer books remain his most celebrated works. In total, he’s published 29 novels featuring police detective Harry Bosch, and 13 featuring lawyer Mickey Haller. These numbers are highly unlikely to be the final totals, as Connelly isn’t done with either character, yet.
However, he’s currently six books into a novel series about Bosch’s protege Renee Ballard, and is bringing back investigative journalist Jack McEvoy for his fourth appearance in a novel, later in 2025. It’s worth noting that all these protagonists share a universe in Connelly’s novels, although Bosch and Ballard exist in a separate universe from Haller on the small screen.
Level 9
2000–2001
Decades before Michael Connelly began work on Paramount’s upcoming Florida taskforce show, he co-created another TV series for the company with China Beach writer John Sacret Young. The series is a single-season work of sci-fi entitled Level 9, about a fictional government agency which fights cyber crime.
It was canceled during its first season due to low viewing figures, with three of its episodes initially left unaired by Paramount’s TV channel UPN. The series didn’t fare particularly well among critics, either, with many complaining that its premise and plot are overly formulaic.
Nevertheless, Level 9 is an enjoyable if lightweight foray into the cyberhacking subgenre of crime and science fiction, at a time when TV dramas hadn’t yet explored this subject matter in much detail. The show clearly attempts to capitalize on the popularity of The Matrix, which was released in theaters the year before it aired.
Of course, Level 9 is nowhere near as complex or profound as its big-screen inspiration, and focuses its story on real-world cyber criminals rather than a computer-generated alternate reality. As a case-of-the-week crime show about hackers, though, it does what it sets out to do well enough, albeit with minimal flair or originality.
Bosch: Legacy
2022–2025
Bosch: Legacy is likely to be the final TV series featuring Harry Bosch as its central protagonist. It tells the story of Bosch’s crime-fighting exploits after he quits the LAPD’s homicide division, as well as the role he plays mentoring both his daughter Maddie Bosch and his protege Renee Ballard in their own work for the police.
The series arrived on Amazon’s Prime Video platform the year after Bosch, its parent show, wrapped up after seven seasons. It might not showcase Harry Bosch’s genius as a police detective with quite the same intensity or breadth of case work as the series it’s spun off, but Bosch: Legacy still delivers plenty of compelling storylines.
Bosch is just as incisive as a private investigator as he was working for the LAPD, although his approach to detective work is now counterbalanced by his daughter’s experiences as a rookie police officer finding her feet. Bosch: Legacy season 3 also features the darkest case Harry Bosch ever investigates, which eventually serves to introduce Renee Ballard as his successor.
The show’s finale episode has split opinion among fans who feel it doesn’t do its title character justice, but no ending was ever going to encapsulate Bosch in his entirety. Besides, he’s returned as a supporting character in Prime Video’s latest spinoff series, Ballard.
Ballard
2025–Present
Ballard is the first Bosch spinoff with a central character that isn’t Harry Bosch. Renee Ballard is the main detective here, who spends most of the show’s first season piecing together the parts of a single, mysterious cold case. Her methodical style and empathetic approach to solving crimes runs completely contrary to the detective she takes after.
There’s some overlap between the storylines in Ballard season 1 and Bosch: Legacy season 3, both of which are based primarily on Michael Connelly’s 2022 novel Desert Star. But we should expect Ballard’s plot to move away from its TV forerunner in future seasons, allowing the show to come into its own as a crime drama.
Even in its first season, however, Ballard feels like a more complete detective story than any part of Bosch: Legacy. There might be much less of Harry Bosch, but Renee Ballard is a worthy successor, whose persistence and mystery-solving skills are underscored by Maggie Q’s charismatic performance.
The show has some way to go before we can compare it to the two most popular TV adaptations of Michael Connelly’s novels. Still, Ballard has made an excellent start to its run on the small screen.
The Lincoln Lawyer
2022–Present
Netflix’s adaptation of Michael Connelly’s Mickey Haller novels has proven to be the author’s most successful TV venture to date. Season 3 of The Lincoln Lawyer was the top streaming show on Netflix in the final third of 2024, and season 4 is anticipated to draw even bigger audiences when it drops in the fall of 2025.
This slick, fast-paced legal thriller series showcases celebrated TV writer and producer David E. Kelley at his best. Kelley has managed to make The Lincoln Lawyer’s characters even more sympathetic and appealing than they appear in Connelly’s books, bringing warmth and a sense of humor to their world of cutthroat legal professionals.
It’ll be tough for The Lincoln Lawyer to maintain the same tone in its fourth season, which will feature the darkest plot thread of the series so far by some distance. Mickey Haller is going to be fighting for his life, as he stands trial for the murder of Sam Scales.
The stakes have never been higher in a Michael Connelly story. If The Lincoln Lawyer manages to pull off this storyline, it could overtake its nearest rival as the best Connelly adaptation on television.
Bosch
2014–2021
As it stands, though, another show sits at the top of this list. In addition to being Michael Connelly’s best TV show, Bosch is arguably the best police-procedural series on television. As gritty as it is utterly gripping, the series immerses us into the world of a maverick homicide detective, thanks in large part to Titus Welliver’s inimitable central performance.
Harry Bosch is a deeply flawed character motivated by his own personal demons, including the harrowing traumas he suffered as a child. But his obsession with unsolved cold cases, implacable intolerance for liars, and deep-seated yearning to see justice done combine to make him an incomparably brilliant investigator of murders.
His no-nonsense demeanor, tough-talking approach to interrogation, and disregard for authority figures don’t win him many friends. But these traits have helped him become one of the most beloved and acclaimed detective characters on television.