In the book Crime Beat by Michael Connelly the main character is Michael Connelly. He is the main character because this is the story of how he decided to become a crime reporter. He talks about many detectives he worked with when he was a crime reporter. those detectives come and go because Michael Connelly gets different journalist offers. he is always talking about different cases that he has published during the time he worked for the papers. The main key plot event is how he realized he wanted to become a crime reporter. This happened when he was 16-years old. He was in his car on the way home from his night-shift job as a dishwasher in a restaurant located in Fort Lauderdale. on his way home he stopped at a red light but he was tired so he was thinking about just driving ahead, when he turned left to see if their were any cops he saw something. He saw a man running in the sidewalk, this man was running from someone or something, he thought to himself. Connelly kept on watching this mysterious man when he saw the man taking of his shirt and wrapping something in it. The man then threw his shirt with that something into a bush and kept on running. Connelly then decided to go see what it was so he made an U-turn when the light turned green. He went towards the bushes slowly so the man did not see him. While he took the shirt out of the bush and unwrapped it, that is when he found the gun, he got scared so he drove away to find a phone booth to call his dad. During that call they decided to call the police. Then he went to jail to give his statement of what he had just seen. During that time in jail he discovered his true calling, being a crime reporter. I think the author wrote this book for people that are interested in crime and why he decided to be a crime reporter. It could also be for people in the crime reporting business seeking guidance on how to write their paper on a recent crime. It can also be for people who believe their passion is to work with detectives and write about them and the crime's they investigate. This book could also be for some people that are looking for a good non-fiction book about crime. Crime beat can be an interesting book for many people that are interested in why Michael Connelly became a crime reporter. Michael Connelly probably wants readers to know how detectives work and how their environment is. He may also want readers to know how hard some of this stories are and how you deal/act around them. There are many things he wants the reader to learn from the book, like if you wanted to become an crime reporter you should see some of his stories and know somethings you should expect. Michael Connelly took his becoming a crime reporter to help those who would like to follow in his footsteps to know what the job is all about. He would probably want people to learn/know that he loved his job and was happy being a crime reporter, being that he now is a novelist.
I thought this was fabulous...anyone else might find it a huge bore, though. This book contains the kernels, seeds, of inspiration, the experiences and sights and sounds that stick with you and then coalesce into a future work. And I am so-o-o-o jealous!Michael Connelly and I were both working as newspaper reporters at the exact time...his press pass shows a goofy, curly headed kid who gets to ride shotgun with the cops for a week, the homicide division no less. Meanwhile mine shows a girl with stupid straight bangs and a pissed-off expression, assigned to covering wedding stories for the bridal section and art exhibit openings. In 1986, girls were not allowed to cover the police beat or the court beat. We were assigned to the lifestyles or entertainment sections.I can remember my first day and asking the room in general "what the hell is peau de soi?" and the older, female reporter, "mother" of the department, smiling and saying "French for silk" as she slammed a drawer shut with her hip. This woman went on to write murder mystery novelettes for Harlequin romance...and I went on to prostitute myself in advertising where I would be paid a lot more money for knowing stuff like what peau de soi is. And Connelly went on to create an unforgettable character, Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch, the LAPD homicide detective who speaks for the dead. Harry is the compilation of all the real-life detectives Connelly knew, the cases...well, we all know truth is stranger than fiction, no doubt.In all honesty, he was not that great as a reporter. I bet he drove his editors NUTS with convoluted leads (supposed to be 25-30 words in length, one I counted at 46, why he didn't break into two?) and flowery, inappropriate, editorializing adjectives like "swift and efficient" killer and "bizarre cast of characters and seamy tales." Hmmmm. Use your verbs, man, not your adjectives, to color up a news story!So, he goes on to write, with great economy and word-restraint, stuff like: “In every murder is the tale of a city.” and "We all are circling the drain, he thought. Some are closer to the black hole than others. Some will see it coming and some will have no clue when the undertow of the whirlpool grabs them and pulls them down into darkness forever."Connelly found his correct place in the universe. And I'm one of his biggest fans. Thus, the book gets four out of five stars.
What do You think about Crime Beat (2006)?
I'd give this 3 1/2 stars if I could.The stories are fascinating, and the writing is, for the most part, quite good. A few stories are a little confusing, but given the complexity of them, I think that's understandable. The quality is consistently high, but I felt there were a few stories that didn't quite live up to the high standard. Some of these could have been trimmed without losing anything.As some people have mentioned, in some sections there are multiple stories about the same case, which leads to some repetition of information. This could have used some editing, but I also see some value in presenting the stories as they initially appeared.My main complaint is that I love the idea of a crime reporter-turned-novelist, and hoped this book would provide more insight on that topic. Sadly, it was glossed over in the introduction and postscript. Now I'll have to read some of Connelly's fiction work.
—Michael
Having read most of Connelly's fiction books and loving them, I was initially quite excited to find out more about Connelly as a reporter, and hoped to gain some insight into how he started and where he got his insipiration. In some respects I suppose this book met that aim, in that you can see some brief glimpses into how Connelly uses his experience as a crime beat reporter to develop his characters and plots in his novels. However I really struggled to finish the book, and only really carried on out of respect for Connelly as an author. I found the articles in the book too repetitive, and without the huamn insights or flair of Connelly's other work. Overall, quite disappointing.
—Ally
I may just set this aside and read some other books I would rather be reading.This is what I call a lazy book. It's an easy way for a known author to bang out a book that people will buy just so the author can make a quick buck. There is no thought put into this, and there is not much of any value. It is just a collection of articles that Michael Connelly wrote when he was on the crime beat. Many of the crimes are not even that interesting, but there are two bigger flaws. First, some of the crimes are covered by multiple articles written over several months or years. Each article re-covers all the details of the case, and then adds the one new piece of information garnered at that point in time. This is good when you are reading a newspaper and need your memory to be refreshed from the previous year. But in a book, these details are repeated just one or two pages after you first read them, and then repeated again with the next article. All to log just one more line of information. In other words, this book is OVER 50% repetitive filler.Second, Connelly could have redeemed this book by writing something new at the end of each chapter. In his introduction he mentions that each of these "moments" affected him in some way. Well, TELL US IN WHAT WAY. "I remember this case specifically because...," "This case was really difficult because...," "I was astounded by this case when...."Michael Connelly is not a bad writer, but this is a bad book.
—Cynthia Corral
