Every Book the ‘Bosch’ and ‘Ballard’ Series Has Adapted So Far, Explained

Bosch, produced by Amazon Studios, is an incredible crime drama series that ran from 2014 to 2021. Just a year after the end of Bosch, a spinoff/sequel titled Bosch: Legacy was released, ushering Harry into the next chapter of his remarkable career from 2022 to 2025. More recently, in 2025, Ballard was released, acting as another direct spin-off from the series as well as a continuation of the series, further cementing the franchise’s legacy.

For those who are unaware, Bosch is based on a popular book series by Michael Connelly, which includes 25 books to date. While this is common knowledge among fans of the Bosch TV series, each season is based on different books. So, below, we’ll go over which books the series has adapted thus far.

Books That the Original ‘Bosch’ Series Adapted

Bosch has consistently adapted the original books, although not in a specific order. Thus, Book 1 was not adapted in the first season, and each book in the series was chosen at random in the story. The first season of Bosch adapts three books: The Concrete Blonde (Book 3), City of Bones (Book 8), and Echo Park (Book 12), as Harry Bosch investigates two cases: a 12-year-old boy’s murder in the Hollywood Hills and his own trial for shooting a suspect in self-defense. The second season, set six months after the first, adapts The Last Coyote (Book 4) and Trunk Music (Book 5), with vague inspiration from The Drop (Book 15).

In Season 2, the murder of a Hollywood producer leads Bosch to hunt for suspects, ultimately connecting him to the mobs of Las Vegas. A major character’s death was borrowed from The Drop. Meanwhile, the third season takes place roughly 16 months after the second, adapting The Black Echo (Book 1) and A Darkness More Than Night (Book 7) in the process. This is where the first novel in the series, released in 1992, comes into play as Bosch pursues a criminal who has murdered his mother. This season also introduced the infamous Koreatown Killer, who would make infrequent appearances in subsequent seasons.

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The initial three seasons were somewhat random in adapting the books, and it only continued in Season 4. Bosch Season 4 adapts the books Angels Fight (Book 6), Nine Dragons (Book 14), and The Last Coyote (Book 4), albeit the latter two serve as minor inspirations for the death of a major character and the successful capture of a long-awaited criminal. The fifth season isn’t very faithful to the original since it only adapted Two Kinds of Truth (Book 20), but it does introduce Bosch to one of his most influential former cases.

The sixth season takes place 11 months after the fifth, adapting The Overlook (Book 13) and Dark Sacred Night (Book 21). This is where things go out of hand, as ordinary crimes become a major catastrophe for Los Angeles. Finally, the last season of the series adapted The Burning Room (Book 17), which takes place on New Year’s Eve. In this season, Bosch looks into the death of a 10-year-old girl in an arson fire and will go to any length to bring the perpetrators to justice. If the explanation we provided above sounds a little complicated, here’s a table of every book that the Bosch series has adapted so far:

‘Bosch: Legacy’ Continues To Adapt the Remainder of the Books

Although it lasted for seven straight years, Bosch did not mark the end of the franchise. A sequel to the popular series, Bosch: Legacy, premiered in May 2022 and ran for three seasons, concluding at the start of 2025. The first season of Bosch: Legacy adapts The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Book 19) and The Night Fire (Book 22), placing Harry Bosch once again in the spotlight. Unlike the previous series, Bosch walks away from the LAPD and begins working as a private investigator in Legacy, which is an interesting change for fans of the original.

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The second season picks up where the previous season left off, adapting the latter half of The Wrong Side of Goodbye (Book 19) and The Crossing (Book 18). In this season, Bosch works with Honey “Money” Chandler to catch the abductor of his daughter, Maddie Bosch, while simultaneously dodging the FBI agents who suspect him from the first season.

The third and final season of Bosch: Legacy would use 2004’s Desert Star as its primary source. In addition, the series uses some of the storylines from 1993’s Black Ice are woven throughout the season to help give more background to the various characters and cases. The final book in the Bosch novels, 2024, The Waiting was not included in Bosch: Legacy, and with Michael Connelly done with the book series, this novel may not see a TV adaptation unless integrated into one of its future spinoffs.

‘Ballard’ Starts a New Chapter for the Legacy of Bosch

Ballard

Release Date

July 9, 2025

Network

Prime Video

Directors

Jet Wilkinson

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  Courtney Taylor

  Samira Parker

Shifting focus from Bosch to Ballard, the most recent series adapts a spin-off book series from Michael Connelly, the Renée Ballard series. Currently, the series consists of six books, with the TV series starting at the events of the fifth book, Desert Star, while drawing some influence from the previous two entries, The Late Show and The Dark Hours. The choice to start at this junction in the series was integral to presenting Ballard as a team leader tackling larger, more complex cases, aligning with the main series.

Renée Ballard was introduced in the first novel in her series The Late Show (2017), but would appear alongside Bosch in the main series in Dark Sacred Night (2018). Ballard takes place after the final book in the Bosch novels, The Waiting (2024). As of July 2025, there is no confirmed second season of Ballard, or which novels it will adapt.