When it was announced last fall that Michael Connelly would be the latest author to offer a serialized story in the New York Times Magazine’s then-new “Funny Pages” section, and that it would be a new Harry Bosch story, I was eager to dig in. When I subsequently learned that Connelly planned to flesh out that story for release several months later as a hardback book, I gritted my teeth and waited. Who wants to read a less-than-complete Connelly, then read the finished product later while knowing all of the major plot points? No thanks.

It was worth the wait. The Overlook is a taut mystery that unfolds over just a few hours. Others have likened it to the TV show “24,” though it shares its compressed timeframe and little more. Regardless, the action in the book crackles, and Bosch has little time for brooding as the case quickly escalates around him.

The book takes place about five months after the events in Connelly’s last book, Echo Park. Bosch has been reassigned and is waiting his first case in the Homicide Special unit. A man has been murdered at an overlook on Mulholland Drive. Harry and his new partner respond, and events quickly unfold. Things are not what they first seem, of course, and it’s up to Harry to unravel things and put them right.

The result is Connelly’s shortest book by a considerable amount, just 225 pages. I had feared such a short Bosch book might feel incomplete, but things move too quickly to miss much. While fans savor every word Connelly puts to paper, it’s a good example for him and other authors seemingly locked into that 400-pages-per-year schedule that a compelling story can be told in many ways. If that means our second Bosch book in less than a year, so much the better.

The Overlook is released on Tuesday; Connelly took time away from what promises to be a hectic promotional schedule to answer a few questions about serializing his work, Harry’s love of jazz and the author’s tightrope walk between offering a thrilling read and doing too much psychic damage to his protagonist. He also discusses the recent debate over the value of newspaper book review sections, something he weighed in on recently in a Los Angeles Times piece.

For those seeking more about Connelly and The Overlook, you can watch the official video for the book here, read an official Q&A with the author here and even listen to some of Bosch's voicemail messages here.

TIRBD: Even though you had the chance to flesh out what ran in the New York Times, this is still your shortest novel by a considerable margin. What did that mean for the way you told the story and the way the action unfolded?

MC: Well, long before I wrote this I was a believer in the idea that less is more when it comes to writing. What that means is that an economy of words can often lead to a momentum in writing that in turn leads to a momentum in reading, whether you are talking about a short sentence, chapter or book. I think that what happens in this book is that the story builds a lot of momentum quickly. I think that there is a lot there in this story, that it gives the reader a lot to think about in terms of what is happening in our society, but it moves pretty quickly and carries a velocity not unlike a real case where much is at stake.

Along those same lines, was it energizing to work with such a compressed time frame?

Yes, it was. The time element was prevalent at all times when I was writing it. I wanted it to be a case that started slowly and methodically at the crimes scene and then took off. In my mind I was thinking of it like a sling shot. The first couple chapters were the pulling back on the sling, then I let go of it and the projectile went flying.

Did you write this and then chop it into 16 parts for the serial, or did you write each section separately?

There was a little leeway from the Times in that they wanted it to be 14 to 16 chapters of 3,000 words each. So, I started with the crime scene and headed off. I ended up with 17 chapters. I then cut two chapters out and turned the first two into three. That gave me 16 chapters with two left over. In reworking the story for publication as a book I put those two chapters back in and reworked the story with no cares about chapter length. So some chapters were shortened or split in two and some were lengthened. I think these changes give the story a better pace.

At what point did you envision the longer version and if it was from the outset, how did you choose what elements to use right away and what to hold back for the novel?

I originally thought that I would publish it as written for the Times and it would be part of a collection of short stories and essays I have published individually in the past. But when I understood how I would need to cut things out, including whole characters and set pieces, that bothered me and I started thinking of going back in and putting these things back in and seeing how the story would stand in complete form. I knew it would never end up being as long as my previous novels and that was fine with me. I didn't want to pad it for the sake of a page count. I thought that would only slow down a fast-paced story. So I only expanded it where I thought it was necessary.

Without giving things away, you put Harry in a situation here that could have a significant impact on his future, perhaps more so than in any other book so far. Have you mapped out how these events will affect Harry in your next book? Do you worry that he's perhaps seen and experienced too much to keep coming back for more?

I think saying that I map out the future events involving Harry is probably too strong a description. What I do is plant seeds. I put things in that are dramatic and needed in the story in front of me but I am also aware that they could bloom into something down the road in another book. That was what I was doing here. What happens to Harry in The Overlook could significantly impact future books. So it is something I will be able to go to and explore. The second part of that question is the tough one. Has Harry seen too much to be believable? That is something I wrestle with a lot. I never expected the character to last this long. It wasn't something I could plan on. So with each book he faced some difficult experiences and now 15 years and 12 books later, I look back and think, man, he's been through a lot. Could anybody survive this and still be plugging away as a detective? All I can say is that I hope so and I hope that the series in whole leads the reader to admire his relentlessness rather than to question the reality of it.

Harry is such a jazz fan, but we rarely see him indulge that other than to listen to records in his house. Do you imagine him going to concerts, interacting with musicians or pursuing that passion in other ways?

I need him to do that more than he has. In a few of the early books he heard the music performed live and then I got away from that and he was left listening in his house. This was for a couple reasons. I think the music is a mood setter for the times he is contemplative of his place in the world. And most often this comes when he is home. I also was trying to make a character stroke with the music in that he primarily listened to jazz artists who were long gone and I thought that this would underline the idea that Harry is an old school guy who is a bit out of time. I also wanted to underline how Harry connected to musicians who had to struggle to make their music, whether it was because of drugs, racism, medical reasons, whatever. This aspect can best be illustrated with artists who didn't make it through. Lastly, for Harry to hear live music then I would have to describe it and I find it very hard to put to words what I love about jazz. So maybe in the long run it’s because I'm intimidated and it is just easier to describe a Miles Davis cut because I can look up reviews and analysis, see what the critical community thought, and riff of these.

You weighed in recently on the book review debate raging among the literati right now. Some have said that an author of your stature has little to lose or gain based on a change in the space newspapers give to book reviews, but you clearly disagree. Why?

No, I don't disagree. I think that I personally don't rely on reviews to the extent that I once did. But that is my point. When I was new in this world the reviews were there to sort of trumpet my arrival and they helped push me to the position I am in now. My concern is that the trumpets are fewer now in newspapers. So I feel that I got in when the getting in was good. Of course, things are shifting toward the Internet and there are innumerable places there where books are discussed, critiqued and trumpeted. But that doesn't make the loss of space in traditional newspaper book sections acceptable. I think a lot of good writers will slip into cracks and a lot of readers will lose out.

Labels: crime fiction, Monday Interview