Simon Ritchie speaks to Michael Connelly ahead of next week's Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

HARROGATE'S Crime Writing Festival may be relatively new on the scene, but it already has a reputation for attracting world-class authors.

This year's guest list is perhaps its best yet, with American author Michael Connelly topping the bill at the four-day event, which starts on Thursday at the town's Cedar Court Hotel.

"When I was asked if I'd like to go to the Harrogate Festival, I jumped at the chance. It's definitely a place you have to go to," said Connelly from his home in Florida.

"I don't know a great deal about Yorkshire, only what I've read in Peter Robinson's books (thrillers set in the Yorkshire Dales), so I'm really looking forward to finding out more about the area."

Connelly will join other leading writers including Kathy Reichs, Ruth Rendall, Val McDermid and Mark Billingham at the festival, which is sponsored by Theakston's Old Peculier.

Next Saturday morning, Connelly will be taking part in a discussion about crime-writing legend Raymond Chandler, while in the evening he will be talking about his own colourful crime writing experiences to BBC Radio 4 presenter Mark Lawson.

After graduating from university in 1980, Connelly worked at various newspapers in Florida, before joining the Los Angeles Times as a crime reporter.

After three years on the crime beat, he began writing his first novel to feature Los Angeles police detective Hieronymus Bosch - Harry to his friends.

Harry is named after the 15th century artist famous for his paintings about Hell, whom Connelly studied briefly while in college.

"He's not based on one cop, but an amalgamation of several real cops I knew while I was a reporter," said Connelly.

In the latest Bosch novel, The Closers (£17.99), which has just been published by Orion, the detective returns to the LAPD after a three-year break.

Working with his former cop partner, Kiz Rider, Bosch is assigned to the department's open-unsolved unit, working on cold cases. These detectives are the Closers.

Harry and Kiz are given a politically-sensitive case when a DNA match connects a white supremacist to the 1988 murder of Rebecca Verloren, a 16-year-old girl. Becky was of mixed race, and the case appears to have a racial angle.

The detectives who worked the case all those years ago seem to have done a decent job, but something doesn't fit... and Bosch is determined to put all the pieces together and solve the crime.

"It's not specifically based on a true story. But I did spend a lot of time with the cold cases unit in Los Angeles seeing how they use modern-day techniques, such as DNA testing, to review old cases," said Connelly.

His next book, The Lincoln Lawyer, will be his first foray into the world of the legal thriller.

"I'll be taking a look at the lawyers at the lowest rung of the legal system. It's an idea I've been fooling about with for the past few years. If I get compared to John Grisham, that'll be pretty cool," says Connelly, who himself has sold multi-million copies of his books.

So what of Harry Bosch? Have we seen the last of him?.

"No way," says Connelly. "I love writing about Bosch, and although he's now 55, I'm hoping to get a few more books out of him before he finally retires."

For more details about the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival log on to www.harrogate-festival.org.uk/crime

For more information on Michael Connelly visit michael.connelly.com

Updated: 16:40 Friday, July 15, 2005