Best-selling author Michael Connelly sheds some light on the noir-ish appeal of his favorite setting: Los Angeles

WBY: It was Raymond Chandler's vision of Bay City that first drew you to LA; as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, you got a taste of the real thing. Did this experience dash—or feed—your darkly romantic notions about the city?

MC: I think it certainly fed it in many ways. The nature of the job takes you to places most people—including those who have spent their entire lives in LA—don't ever see. So, rightly or wrongly, I felt I was getting to know the city's dark secrets. That gave me the confidence to feel like I could write about the place and that I had something to say.

WBY: In Lost Light, protagonist Harry Bosch expresses a fondness for the quirky old Farmers Market on Fairfax and Third. What are your personal top three old-school icons and seductively seedy spots?

MC: I think the Market is a wonderful place to go, and one of the best mixes of old and new in the city. A couple of places that I think are timeless and worth visiting are Union Station in downtown, and the nearby Bradbury Building. Very soon, I think Angels Flight will be operating again and hopefully that will last another hundred years. Talk about seductively seedy, I love early-morning walks on the Venice boardwalk. Before the shops open, the homeless encampments are just breaking for the day—it's a very interesting place to be.

WBY: In 2008, you published a promotional Zagat® Guide listing the favorite hometown haunts of two recurring characters, Bosch and Mickey Haller. You're emerging as quite a character yourself—what are your own favorites?

MC: Coincidentally, I have the same tastes as those guys. Breakfast at Du-par's in the Farmers Market or on Ventura Boulevard in the Valley, lunch at Bird's in Hollywood, dinner at Dan Tana's in West Hollywood—that to me would be a day of great food and a lot of calories. There's a restaurant in Santa Monica Canyon, a half-block from the beach, called Giorgio Baldi which is pretty fantastic, too. I like eating at the bar at Capo in Santa Monica and talking about wine and writing with Brian, the bartender. He knows his stuff.

WBY: You have an undeniable knack for the fringe character. What is it about the physical and cultural landscape of Los Angeles that welcomes—and continues to shape—outsiders?

MC: It's a second-chance city. People move there because wherever they came from wasn't working for them. So it makes L.A. a place of last resort. I think for a lot of people, when they make that decision, they are alone. When you are alone, you observe; you're on the outside looking in. I think that is a sense that all my characters have.

WBY: Los Angeles is full of restaurants whose shabby exteriors or dodgy locales belie the culinary delights inside. For our more adventurous readers, who's at the top of your “the worse it looks, the better it tastes” list?

MC: Musso and Frank is on a somewhat seedy stretch of Hollywood Boulevard and most people enter from the back parking lot. It is not the best welcome and does not hint at the old Hollywood charm and crisp, cold cocktails that await. Up in Burbank, the Blue Room is the classic dive bar on the outside and a pretty cool place inside. Downtown is also full of weary-on-the-outside, great-on-the-inside standards, including Philippe's, the Pacific Dining Car, Taylor's and Chinese Friends.

WBY: Los Angeles is a patchwork of funky neighborhood commercial strips like the Abbot Kinney and Larchmont districts—many of which the typical visitor might miss. What are your favorite undiscovered LA treasures?

MC: I think you nailed it with Abbot Kinney. I love walking along there and trying new places. Equator Books is an independent bookstore and gallery that you could easily spend a couple of hours in—they have a whole section of books on surfing. I used to live in Santa Monica Canyon, so I am partial to the restaurants there and the almost-always-deserted beach. If you're further inland, Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz is a great street with restaurants, bars, movies, and, of course, Skylight Books. Seems like a lot of my favorite places are in close proximity to bookstores.

WBY: You've returned to your native Florida, but you’re still writing about LA. What do you think it is about the City of Angels that continues to be so magnetic, both for you and for your readers?

MC: I think there is a palpable sense that anything can happen—good or bad—in Los Angeles that I just don't feel in other places, even New York. I think creative people are drawn here because they want to figure out how to capture that.