I'm definitely not finished with Harry Bosch

Crime writer Michael Connelly talks to HANNAH STEPHENSON about introducing a new cop in his 40th book - and more screen adaptations

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Yet Bosch will live on, Michael says confidently. "I've definitely not finished with Bosch. I think we'll probably see him again next year in a book."

IT was a bittersweet moment when bestselling crime writer Michael Connelly was told that the series featuring his signature detective Harry Bosch - the longest-running character on streaming television in the world - was being cancelled.

After seven series of Bosch, which began in 2014, and three of Bosch: Legacy on Prime Video, Michael, who also created The Lincoln Lawyer, was told there wouldn't be a fourth outing for Detetcive Hieronymous ‘Harry’ Bosch.

Speaking from his home in Los Angeles, Michael, whose books have sold more than 85 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 45 languages, says: “I have no complaints about it only lasting 10 seasons. It’s rare that shows last that long.

“I just wish we knew we were ending it when we were writing it and filming it, and I think we would have gone out in a slightly different way. There were a couple of loose ends and luckily the last episode was an introduction to [Renee] Ballard.”

Now he's working on a new series centring on the Ballard character as she heads up a cold case squad, starring Maggie Q, which is scheduled for summer. So as one door closes, another opens.

And his creation The Lincoln Lawyer (in which lawyer Mickey Haller runs his office from his Lincoln car), which was adapted into a film starring Matthew McConaughey and later a Netflix series starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, has just been renewed for a fourth series.

“Sometimes it's just somebody who can lead through example and Titus Welliver (who plays Harry Bosch in both TV series) has the gravitas of a guy who knows how to act well and is like automatic, not having to do a number of takes because he doesn't know his lines.”