HBO is developing Welcome to Catalina, a new police drama from writer David E. Kelley based on Michael Connelly’s 2024 bestseller Nightshade. The project centers on Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Stilwell, a cop who has been exiled to Catalina Island.
Connelly described Stilwell as “a cop who has been ‘exiled’ to what sounds like a quieter post policing Catalina Island,” underscoring how far the character is being pushed from the usual terrain of his stories. HBO confirmed it is developing the series, putting one of crime fiction’s most durable television voices back in play at a moment when viewers still respond to Connelly’s universe.
The move matters because Connelly’s characters already have a long and crowded history on television. Bosch became one of Prime Video’s earliest breakout hits, Bosch: Legacy took the franchise in a new direction, and The Lincoln Lawyer brought a ton of eyes onto Netflix. Kelley also has a direct line to that world: he previously worked with Connelly on the Netflix adaptation of The Lincoln Lawyer.
That shared history gives Welcome to Catalina a built-in credibility that few new police dramas can match. Kelley is not being asked to invent Connelly’s tone from scratch, and HBO is not gambling on an unfamiliar property. It is extending a crime brand that has already proved it can travel across platforms and still draw an audience.
The friction is in the premise itself. Stilwell is not heading into a fresh investigation in a familiar city; he is being sent to an island post that sounds remote, quieter and, in Connelly’s own framing, like exile. That setup suggests a different kind of procedural, one built as much on displacement as on detection, and it gives HBO a lead character whose isolation may matter as much as the crimes he faces.
What happens next is straightforward: Kelley will write the project as HBO develops it, and the network will decide whether Welcome to Catalina becomes the next chapter in the Connelly adaptation run. For now, the answer to the biggest question is yes — HBO is moving ahead with a Michael Connelly Hbo Max Series project that keeps his television pipeline alive and gives Stilwell a new island to get lost on.
