Michael Connelly

So obviously that would infect, or infect's a bad word, influence the way I write, you know.

And so...

I do look at all my books as one wheel.

I think the center of that wheel is Harry Bosch, but there's a lot of spokes, and it's all one thing turning around.

I knew you were going to ask that, and now I'm going to have trouble remembering who it is.

But it's like I know I've seen it.

I think Stephen King has done it.

I know I'm not the originator of it.

I think there's a writer named James Lee Burke who has done that as well.

And so it's not a new thing to do.

It's just something that I've always –

when I come across it.

And it's really a lot of fun to do as a writer.

You know, you're the marionette controlling all these things.

I'll tell you the downside of it is that my lawyers and agents pull their hair out because...

Their job is to try to sell my books to Hollywood and make movies and TV shows, and there's always these rights issues like, oh, the Lincoln lawyer's in this book.

That makes it unsellable because someone already has the rights to the Lincoln lawyer, that kind of stuff.

But to me, it's just a sidebar.

To me, it's all about the books, and if it's right and proper and it works to bring a character in from some other book, then I do it.

Well, it is a place like for, you know, the literary history goes back more than 100 years.