Crime Beat: A Decade of Covering Cops and Killers    by Michael Connelly Order:  USA  Can Little, Brown & Co., 2006 (2005) Hardcover, CD Read an Excerpt     Reviewed by Mary Ann Smyth Michael Connelly, well known for his Harry Bosch thrillers, considers himself a reporter first and foremost. He worked as crime reporter for two newspapers - the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Los Angeles Times. He gathered facts to get to the story beneath the facts, and to present it so that readers would see events as he saw them. This brand of journalism allowed him to embroider on the stories he filed in order to create his own novels. In so doing, he is able to present a case to his readers from different perspectives - those of both the victim and the criminal. Connelly's protagonist, Harry Bosch, sees the world as it is and internalizes the pain. In Crime Beat, Connelly summarizes some of the cases he covered for the press in the 80s and 90s - ones he has used as themes for his sixteen novels. He details crime sprees, the odd crime of passion, those of outright murder, and the work of serial killers. Newspaper articles are used to follow the progress of cases as they flow through the court system. Don't skip either the Foreword or the Afterword. Connelly recounts the moment he became enamored of crime solving. And Michael Carlson explains Connelly as he sees him. If you are interested in the solving of unusual cases, this is the book for you. Or possibly you're interested in writing mysteries yourself - you can't go wrong with Crime Beat as one of your textbooks. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more NonFiction books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews