Arts & Entertainment
Best-selling Author Michael Connelly to Visit Birmingham
Birmingham Patch talks to Connelly, whose latest book tour makes two stops Thursday in Oakland County.
Best-selling author Michael Connelly will to discuss his new book, The Fifth Witness, as well as the 2011 Everyone Reading selection, The Lincoln Lawyer.
Everyone Reading, a program now in its 10th year, links Metro Detroit communities and libraries in Wayne and Oakland counties in a communal discussion over one a book a year. The selected author then makes the rounds of community libraries, hosting discussions and book signings.
According to Matt Chuch, assistant director of — which helped select The Lincoln Lawyer as this year's book — the visit is exciting for the library and Birmingham. A film version of The Lincoln Lawyer starring Matthew McConaughey premiered March 18 and is currently showing at the .
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“It’s been huge,” Church said. “It was great to get (Connelly) with the new film and the new book. It’s really exciting. And the new book has received excellent reviews. There has been a huge response within the community.”
Both The Lincoln Lawyer, published in 2005, and The Fifth Witness feature criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. The Fifth Witness brings Haller back to the courtroom, taking on an explosive new case involving foreclosures.
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Connelly will be at for a luncheon and meet-and-greet from noon-1:30 p.m, with a discussion at 2 p.m. The luncheon costs $40 per person, and books will available for purchase from the Book Beat bookstore.
Proceeds from the luncheon will benefit the Baldwin Public Library and The Community House.
Connelly will visit West Bloomfield's Jewish Community Center at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Learn more about that visit here. A ticket will be required for Connelly’s appearances. Tickets are free but limited. Contact participating libraries for more information and ticket availability.
Just before he kicked off his latest book tour, Connelly took some time with Patch to talk about his upcoming appearance in Birmingham, The Fifth Witness and the film.
Birmingham Patch: A communitywide reading program sponsored by local public libraries in Oakland and Wayne counties selected The Lincoln Lawyer as its featured novel for this year. The programming is sponsoring two of your stops on your visit; what are you expecting from the events?
Michael Connelly: I’m looking forward to the discussion. It’s going to be pretty cool to come to a place where they’re waiting for you, and they’ve prepared themselves. I’ll be able to talk from a standpoint of everyone knowing the story, and I can probably get more into the details about how the story came about.
Most often on a book tour stop, you’re selling something, you’re promoting something they haven’t read yet. This should be different, and I think it will be better for the people that attend.
Birmingham Patch: When you go on these tours, at this point in your career, what’s more gratifying for you: A fan coming up coming to you, just having discovered one of your novels, or someone who’s been reading your books over the past 20 years and telling you they really enjoyed the lasted novel?
Connelly: For me, nothing tops someone that is just touched by a character. I had this experience where I was in a bookstore in Paris. A woman stood up and said something and got real tearful. She said it in French, which I don’t speak, and it had to be translated for me. She said, "I’m worried about Harry Bosch (Connelly’s detective character, featured in 16 of his 23 novels). Please don’t kill him."
Something like that is fulfilling beyond words. At this point in my career, I’ll take that over a great review in the New York Times or something. That kind of connection to a reader, that brings you back to how storytelling is in our DNA. Great storytelling knows no bounds. If you can tap into something and get that kind of feedback, it makes your year.
Birmingham Patch: Your newest book, The Fifth Witness, brings back Mickey Haller from The Lincoln Lawyer and has him working foreclosure defense to start the novel because of the economic downturn. The backbone of the narrative ends up being about the topic; what made you tackle it?
Connelly: It’s a crowded field, this legal thriller thing, and I’m not even a lawyer, so I feel like I’m at a disadvantage just going out the door. If I can find some territory that’s untried, then I’m really interested. That’s what I felt was happening here.
Birmingham Patch: Michigan has been hit hard by foreclosures; it’s in the top 10 states nationally. Do you think the book will resonate in some areas, like this one, more than others?
Connelly: I think so. I’ll find that out when I start traveling. I live in Florida and write about Los Angeles, and those are also in the top 10. So it resonated in my own world, and that was good enough for me.
Birmingham Patch: The adaptation of the first Haller novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, just hit theaters with Matthew McConaughey as Haller. It’s really gone over well with audiences. Why do you think legal thrillers make for such popular entertainment?
Connelly: It’s always a high-stakes situation. When you get into the strategy and the gamesmanship, I think it’s interesting. It gets more interesting when lives or freedom are at stake.
Birmingham Patch: I read a quote of yours about adapting The Lincoln Lawyer, and you said the key to the Mickey Haller character and the narrative is that it requires constant momentum. Did the movie get it right?
Connelly: It’s a courtroom drama, so you eventually get in a room where your major stars are sitting down and not moving. That’s scary for a movie. So Brad Furman, the director, and John Romano, the screenwriter, kind of knew that pacing was going to be a key thing going in, and they pulled it off.
Birmingham Patch: Reading is a very solitary activity. You never get to see people react to your books as they read them. With the movie adaptation, what’s it like to watch people react to your characters and dialogue in real time?
Connelly: It’s surreal because you’re getting that whole experience live with people as it’s happening. You can hear the people talking. I’ve seen the movie at least 12 times now, and I like to go in the back. I’m watching the people and how they react.
I enjoy the reactions as people discover this stuff. It’s totally different than anything you get out of a book. I told you that story about the lady in France, but this is an instantaneous reaction, and it’s pretty amazing to have that.