This clean freeway is brought to you by Michael Connelly

Perhaps you have been driving near downtown Los Angeles and noticed that someone named Michael Connelly has adopted a stretch of highway. If you’re a fan of mysteries and thrillers, you might have thought, that Michael Connelly? The one who wrote “The Lincoln Lawyer,� “The Drop� and more than 20 other books?

Yep.

Connelly’s new novel, “The Black Box,� comes out in November. Like his other Harry Bosch mysteries, it’s set in Los Angeles, where Connelly used to live. Back before he was a bestselling author, Connelly was a crime reporter at the L.A. Times.

That was a long time ago; it’s been 20 years since the publication of Connelly’s first Harry Bosch novel, “The Black Echo.� And that’s where the freeway adoption comes in.

To celebrate two decades of Harry Bosch books, publisher Little, Brown & Co. adopted a section of the 5 Freeway in Michael Connelly’s name. Kind of like a present -- a really unusual, particularly Los Angeles type of present.

Where to find it? Traveling south on the 5 approaching downtown, look for the sign as you’re nearing the interchange with the 2 Freeway. And tip your hat to the clean freeway courtesy of that Michael Connelly.

Connelly will be able to see the sign in person when he comes back to Los Angeles on tour for “The Black Box.� He’s got events in Pasadena, South Pasadena, Thousand Oaks and Huntington Beach -- which should mean plenty of freeway driving.

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