Killer In The Code: A Podcast Recommendation

You've probably heard of Michael Connelly, or at least of his work -- the Harry Bosch novels (later a popular series on Amazon), the Lincoln Lawyer novels (later a movie and still later a Netflix series), etc. I've been a fan for a long time, ever since I happened across yet another of his series characters, Jack McEvoy, in The Poet, and I'm pretty sure I've read all his published work unless a novel just came out and I haven't noticed yet.

Connelly did not start off as a novelist and occasional poker player on Castle. He started off as a reporter at the Independent Alligator, an off-campus student newspaper of the University of Florida here in Gainesville (before I lived here), and then a working newspaper journalist (especially a crime reporter).

He's back on non-fiction again, this time in audio form, with "Killer In The Code: Solving The Black Dahlia & Zodiac Cases," a podcast series that's exactly what it sounds like.

I am not a cold case homicide detective. I don't play a cold case homicide detective on TV, or on the Internet. And it's always possible that some of the stuff in the podcast will turn out to be incorrect or exaggerated -- that's always been the case with "true crime journalism," even before it became one of the most effective forms of clickbait. But from my entirely amateur POV, the case Connelly and his co-hosts (some of whom are retired cold case homicide detectives) have made over the first eight episodes is incredibly persuasive.

In addition to being persuasive, it's fascinating, and delivered in very listenable form. You should check it out.