At the weekend Michael Connelly came to town. You may never have heard of him, which means you are not a fan of crime fiction, and US based crime novels in particular. Michael Connelly is the master of the genre, his series of novels depicting the life and times of Harry Bosch set the bar very high and they make for addictive reading. Courtesy of the independent, specialised and much cherished noalibis bookstore, Michael Connelly was in Belfast on Friday and read extracts from his latest novel The Scarecrow before taking questions from a sold out Studio audience in the Waterfront Hall. For the fans it was an opportunity not to be missed.
The Scarecrow is a novel set in the world of old style investigative journalism, and in the course of Friday’s talk Michael set forth his concerns that the internet and the way in which we digest news, is threatening the future of print media. Institutions in the US such as the New York Times and LA Times are not immune to the downturn in advertising spending and hundreds of state based papers have closed in the last twelve months. For some reason it was decided about a decade ago that newspapers would be free online – that’s a difficult position to reverse but how on earth did it come to this?
Why would any business pay staff, buy equipment, invest in premises etc and then give away the end product? There’s no mystery behind the crisis enveloping paid for daily newspapers.
Oh, and well done to David at No Alibis, it was a great event.
Bosch creator in Belfast
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