L.A.’s Finest: Michael Connelly & Robert Crais Write Crime

It was like LA Christmas in London December this year, as a new Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novel from Robert Crais was followed by Michael Connelly’s latest Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard book. Cole and Pike first appeared in 1987’s Monkey’s Raincoat; Bosch debuted in The Black Echo (1992). I have been with both writers from the start; I believe my Spectator review of Connelly’s 1997 Trunk Music may have been his first in the UK. That’s more than three decades of quality crime fiction from two writers who’ve expanded the limits of the series detective format…