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When Michael Connelly started writing mystery and crime novels, he was determined his books were going to reflect his experiences. As a police reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he knew justice was elusive and criminals were not always held accountable for their actions.

In crime fiction, the standards and traditions were different: Good triumphed over evil, and the bad guys didn't get away. Connelly obeyed these conditions until he wrote "The Poet," a book he hoped would fulfill reader's needs for resolution in terms of unmasking the criminal, but also mirror his reality by allowing the perpetrator to slip away.

"My intention was never to write a sequel," Connelly says. "In my fictional universe, there would be at least one story that was a little bit of a reflection of real life, that they sometimes get away."

"The Poet," which concerned an FBI director who turned into a serial killer, became one of Connelly's most popular titles. Fans often requested the sequel Connelly said he would never write, but he resisted -- until last year, when he started to write his latest novel, "The Narrows."

Connelly revisited the Poet's character because of two life-changing events: the birth of his first child and, especially, 9/11.

"I hesitate to equate such a tremendous and serious event to my little world of commercial fiction," he says. "But that affected people in many ways, and, obviously, with me and many other people, it just seemed to slant the world a little bit, made it more uncertain. It started to bother me that in this world where things are more uncertain and you don't have a whole lot of control over what happens, I have this alternate world, this fictional universe where everything I control, and yet I let this evil run free. ... I had to go back in there and take that loose end or that darkness out of my made-up universe."

The crime is grisly -- a mass grave is discovered in the desert outside of Las Vegas -- and calls for the skills of Connelly's best-known character, Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch, a former LAPD detective now in private practice. He's called by the widow of Terry McCaleb, the protagonist of Connelly's "Blood Work," to investigate her husband's death.

This incursion of reality into the narrative provides some surrealistic moments. Clint Eastwood, who portrayed McCaleb in the film version of "Blood Work," attends the character's funeral. Another character complains about his portrayal in the movie, and Connelly also references three of his peers -- Ian Rankin, Dean Koontz and George Pelecanos -- in the book.

Connelly says he made a conscious effort to break the "fourth wall" between fiction and reality. Because of a previous novel, "Angels Flight," he was left with no choice. In that book, Harry Bosch talks about an upcoming movie with Eastwood and his portrayal of McCaleb. It was a throwaway line, just banter between two cops.

Then the film version of "Blood Work" appeared in 2002.

"That meant, in my fictional universe, there was a movie about Terry McCaleb in which Clint Eastwood played him," Connelly says. "So in 'The Narrows,' I had to carry that forward. I had to acknowledge there was a movie, so I went with the real movie, and the real movie changed my fictional story quite a bit. It had a different bad guy and a different ending, but I thought that was stuff that should be commented on."

Pop culture isn't the only intersection of fiction and reality in "The Narrows."

In a previous novel, "City of Bones," Connelly had Bosch leave the LAPD because of the character's disenchantment with the police force. Midway through "The Narrows," the fictional detective is contemplating a return -- because of real-life events.

Connelly says he retired Bosch to reflect the disillusionment many longtime LAPD detectives felt in the late 1990s.

"He quit during a time when people were leaving all the time," Connelly says.

But Bosch's departure also was a literary device.

"I constantly need to invent ways of keeping my passion for him going and putting him in new situations," Connelly says. "The only way to sustain a series is to make some big changes, so I felt the series at that point needed to have a big change."

Fiction and reality intermingle further in a companion DVD that is free with purchase of the book -- while supplies last, of course. At the end of the short film, directed by filmmaker Terrill Lee Lankford -- who has just published his first novel, "Earthquake Weather" -- Connelly is shown in the audience of a graduation ceremony for LAPD recruits as a guest of police chief William Bratton.

The author was there to observe, but was surprised when Bratton, in the midst of the graduation ceremony, suggests returning Bosch to the force.

Whether he does is best left for readers to find out. But the admiration Connelly has for Bosch's real-life counterparts is evident.

"The people who do this are doing a very noble job," he says. "They do open their world to me, and it's really inspiring. I can go over there and spend a day looking at some of the files, taking cops out to lunch and kind of sitting back and listening to them talk. I definitely come out of a day like that, not feeling like I'm prince of the city, but like I have to start writing because this stuff is so good in terms of character and dedication and the relentlessness in their eyes."

Capsule review

"The Narrows," Michael Connelly's 14th novel, skillfully blends a fiction with doses of reality. The result is a masterful crime story featuring former LAPD detective Harry Bosch, the Poet, an FBI agent-turned-killer from a previous Connelly novel, and a well-drawn supporting cast. Bosch is his usual contrary self, the Poet is evil enough without being a caricature, and the references to "Blood Work," a Connelly novel made into a film featuring Clint Eastwood, provide comic relief. One character complains about his portrayal in the movie, and Eastwood attends a funeral for a fictional character, but such comedic touches never get in the way of Connelly's riveting narrative.

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