Characters / Michael Connelly

Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch

A LAPD detective and illegitimate child of Michael Haller Sr.

• Alliterative Name: He'd have one if he took his father's surname.
• Cowboy Cop: If he wasn't running afoul of the department chain of command or city politics (or both), it wouldn't be a Harry Bosch case.
• Combat Pragmatist: He weaponized the 8-ball to devastating effect once when taken captive and held in a room with a pool table.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Honey Chandler in The Concrete Blonde accuses Harry Bosch of this and quotes Friedrich Nietzsche.
• Impersonating an Officer: Bosch uses his lieutenant's name to run some DMV traces when he is investigating his mother's murder while on stress leave since he doesn't have official standing to do so at the time. He later steals the lieutenant’s badge since he does not have his own. This turns out very badly for the lieutenant when the bad guys think he’s the one investigating them.
• Long-Lost Relative: To his half-brother Mickey Haller
• Meaningful Name: The original Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch Renaissance painter known for nightmarish hellscapes. This connection is mentioned in several Harry Bosch novels and is explored at length in A Darkness More Than Night.
  • Also, when Bosch and his father met, Mr. Haller brought up author Hermann Hesse because one of Hesse's works (Steppenwolf) featured a character named "Harry Haller". It was after reading that story Harry Bosch decided to become a cop.
• Old Cop, Young Cop: Harry is the senior detective in all of his various partnerships throughout the series. The very young and inexperienced Lucy Soto is partnered with Harry in The Burning Room so that she can benefit from his decades of experience before he retires.
• Papa Wolf: Do NOT mess with Maddie. He will go through hell and back to save her, and he will stack as many bodies as it takes to do it.
• Real Men Get Shot: Harry takes a round in the shoulder during the climax of The Black Echo, which nearly kills him. Several of his subsequent romantic partners comment on the scar.
• Signature Line: Everybody counts or nobody counts.
• Son of a Whore: This is the reason why Bosch was placed in an orphanage even before his mother was murdered.
• Standard Cop Backstory: Absent father, check. Murdered mother, check^note He gets the bonus points for her murder being unsolved until he personally solved it in The Last Coyote.. Raised in an orphanage, check. Numerous failed romances, check. Married to the Job, check. He was even in the Army (and a Vietnam combat vet to boot) before joining the LAPD.
• Turn in Your Badge: Investigated the murder of his mother while on suspension/stress leave for assaulting his commanding officer in The Last Coyote. After retiring at the end of City Of Bones, he works as a private investigator in Lost Light and The Narrows, both times lamenting the difficulties caused by his lack of official standing. Finally, he was given this order at the end of The Burning Room by his commanding officer for being caught breaking into the office of the RHD captain.

Eleanor Wish

Harry's wife, then ex-wife, and mother of their daughter Maddie.

• FBI Agent: Eleanor was one until her involvement in the diamond thefts in ‘’The Black Echo’’ is discovered by Bosch. Bosch convinces her to come clean, and she spends a few years in prison.
• Missing Mom: In ‘’9 Dragons’’, Eleanor dies in a shootout while she and Harry are trying to find Maddie, who has been kidnapped in Hong Kong.
• Professional Gambler: Eleanor's new career after she gets out of prison. She's quite good as a poker player.

Detective Jerry Edgar

Harry Bosch's partner from The Black Echo until his first retirement after City of Bones (2002).

• Sharp-Dressed Man: He always wears expensive suits and is noted for being the sharpest dresser in Hollywood division. One time he wears a t-shirt to a murder scene in order to avoid the dirty work of notifying the victim's next of kin and gets stuck doing the paperwork instead of working the field.
• The Watson: To Harry. Harry even jokingly calls him "Watson" during a flashback sequence at the beginning of Echo Park.
  Edgar: Why am I always Watson? Why can't I be Holmes?
  Bosch: Because Watson is the one who always talks too much. But if you like, I'll start calling you "Homes."^note At the time, Edgar had a side job selling real estate.

Assistant Chief Irvin Irving

One of the most senior members of the LAPD

• Alliterative Name: In The Black Echo, his introductory chapter shows that he considered his silly name to be his one impediment that he had to overcome to advance in the department.
• Arch-Nemesis: To Bosch, on and off. They develop a truce during the events of The Concrete Blonde, which lasts until City of Bones (2002).
• Da Chief
• Internal Affairs: Irving's command responsibilities in the department included oversight of IAD.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Irving has moments of this, especially during The Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote, and Trunk Music.
• Reluctant Retiree: Irving gets maneuvered into retirement at the end of The Closers. He does not take this well, and later becomes a city councilman who uses his position to make things difficult for the LAPD.

Lt. Harvey "Ninety-Eight" Pounds

Harry's commanding officer until The Last Coyote.

• Arch-Nemesis: To most of the homicide detectives, generally, and to Bosch in particular. Bosch eventually shoves him through his own office window when Pounds interferes with (and ruins) an interview with a suspect.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: And how. He spends the first three books in command of the Hollywood detective squads, despite having next to zero skill as a detective himself. He is quick to find creative ways to boost the homicide clearance rate of the division, but overall his efforts do more to impede his detectives than to help.

Lt. Grace Billets

Harry's commanding officer from Trunk Music until City of Bones (2002).

• Reasonable Authority Figure: She takes over as commander of the Hollywood detectives following the death of Harvey Pounds and cares more about doing the right thing than playing politics or statistical games. Like Pounds, she also doesn't have a great deal of experience investigating homicides, but readily acknowledges this and knows when to stay out of the way. Harry admires and respects this about her, especially after working under Harvey Pounds. She remains Harry’s commanding officer until he retires at the end of City of Bones (2002).

Detective John "Sustained" Chastain

An Internal Affairs detective in the LAPD.

• Arch-Nemesis: To Bosch, until his death at the end of Angels Flight.
• Dirty Cop: He was Howard Elias’ source for back-door information, which was eventually the motive for him killing Elias.
• Internal Affairs: His job, which he does proudly and enthusiastically.
• Killer Cop: He turns out to be Howard Elias' murderer. He also kills Frankie Sheehan to cover it up.
• The Mole: He was this for Howard Elias.
• Red Baron: "Sustained" Chastain. He investigates complaints against police officers, which can result in findings of sustained, unsustained, or unfounded. He has a high rate of sustaining complaints, and he wears his nickname like a badge of honor.
• Who Watches the Watchmen?: A variant ("Someone has to police the police") is Chastain's Signature Line.

FBI Agent Terry McCaleb

• Awesome by Analysis: Terry's job as a profiler made him this.
• Career-Ending Injury: Terry suffered from heart disease that eventually required him to have a transplant, forcing his retirement from the FBI. He keeps solving crimes after his surgery anyway, including the murder of the woman whose heart he received.
• FBI Agent: Until his retirement.
• The Profiler: Terry's job as an FBI Agent was this. He continues to do it after he retires, offering his assistance for free to small departments when they have difficult to solve murders.
• Reluctant Retiree: Terry misses his job, and continues to do it on a volunteer free-lance basis after his surgery.

FBI Agent Rachel Walling

• Action Girl: Even though she is introduced as a profiler, Rachel is a very competent field agent as well.
• Awesome by Analysis: A job requirement of being a profiler. Harry Bosch frequently calls her to make use of her skills, even though the FBI never returns her to the profiling unit after the events of The Poet.
• Cowgirl Cop: After being demoted out of the profiling unit and reassigned to North Dakota following The Poet, Rachel’s attitude shifts towards the cowgirl end of the spectrum, especially when she teams up with Bosch during The Narrows.
• FBI Agent
• The Profiler: How she started in the FBI. Currently working in an intelligence role, but still used for this by Bosch on occasion.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Following the events of The Poet, Rachel is transferred from her profiler assignment with Behavioral Sciences in Quantico to the field office in Minot, ND. By The Narrows, she has moved up to Rapid City, SD, and afterwards has earned her way back into the Bureau’s good graces and works for an intelligence unit in Los Angeles.

Michael "Mickey" Haller Jr.

The eponymous Lincoln Lawyer from Michael Connelly's novels.

• Amoral Attorney: Subverted. Mickey feels bad about helping evil people to get away with their crimes despite respecting their rights as his clients- though he does draw a distinct line between guilty and evil. He has absolutely no issues getting clients who are merely guilty off the hook.
• Disappeared Dad: Haller Sr. passed away back when Mickey was five years old.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Mickey might be one of the relatives Harry Bosch met in the flashback featured in The Black Ice.
• Long-Lost Relative: Harry Bosch’s younger half-brother, though they don’t meet until well into adulthood.
• Manipulative Bastard: Mickey is one to some degree, praying up on witnesses', juries' and opposing council's emotional weaknesses in order to influence them and catch them off guard. He gathers as much information as possible and uses it to manipulate witnesses and prosecutors to bend his way. However, it is implied In-Universe that any lawyer worth their salt uses these techniques to some degree, on both sides of the courtroom, though prosecutors tend to think they are above these kind of underhanded tactics.
• Unconventional Courtroom Tactics: At one point a witness is subpoenaed just to force him to take the fifth in front of the jury in order to (successfully) distract them from his actual client, and in another case he actually faked a fight in a courtroom in order to force a mistrial.
• Working with the Ex: His first ex-wife occasionally helps him with some work and his second one is his secretary.
• Vanity License Plate: Seems to have a penchant for adding these to his signature Lincoln towncars: both “NTGUILTY” and “IWALKEM” have been seen.