Recommended by my partner, I whipped through this mystery suspense thriller police procedural and its steady tension, workmanlike writing, and feisty, interesting protagonist although I think her history was probably explained in past books. Just think about an author selling eighty million books. His stories are what people want, not the angst and classics that attract me, but even I had a nice escape in this non-stop tale. Love the Los Angeles setting details. ( )

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: ©11-09-2021; ISBN 978-0316485647; 400 pp; unabridged).
(Digital: Yes).
*Audio: ©11-09-2021; Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; Duration: 11:04:00; unabridged
(Film: Not yet—maybe incorporated into the new Bosch series slated for 2022?)

SERIES: Renee Ballard, book 4; Bosch, book 23

Major CHARACTERS:
Renee Ballard
Harry Bosch

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
Another great page-turner! I love that Connelly reflects the current times. Times aren’t so great for the police, what with the pandemic and de-fund the police type social unrest. Renee Ballard is struggling a little for motivation to stay on the force when the only real assistance she gets is from the retired detective, Harry Bosch. She’s juggling two serious cases in this one, but I won’t spoil it with any hints of what they involve.

AUTHOR:
Michael Connelly: In the biography section of MichaelConnelly.com, the first paragraph reads, “Michael Connelly was born in Philadelphia, PA on July 21, 1956. He moved to Florida with his family when he was 12 years old. Michael decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.”

NARRATOR(S):
Titus Welliver: The first paragraph in the biography page on Titus Welliver from IMDb.com reads, “Titus Welliver was born on March 12, 1962 in New Haven, Connecticut. His father was a famous landscape painter, Neil Welliver. His mother was a fashion illustrator, Norma Cripps. He has three brothers, one was killed overseas. He was raised in Philadelphia and New York City, surrounded by poets and painters. He credits them for his creativity. Originally wanting to be a painter like his father, he later decided to pursue acting. Titus moved to New York in 1980 to learn his craft. He enrolled in classes at New York's HB Acting Studios while attending New York University. To support himself, Titus did a variety of jobs including bartender and construction worker.”

Christine (Helen) Lakin (1/24/1979). Wikipedia’s first paragraph about Christine says, “”[Christine] is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Alicia "Al" Lambert on the 1990s ABC/CBS sitcom Step by Step. She also played Joan of Arc on Showtime's Reefer Madness, was the sidekick on Craig Kilborn's 2010 Fox talk show The Kilborn File, and provides the voice of Joyce Kinney in Family Guy.”

They are both the perfect narrators for these characters!

GENRE:
Fiction; Police Procedural; Private Investigator; City Life

LOCATIONS:
Los Angeles

TIME FRAME:
Contemporary

SUBJECTS:
Gangs; Murder; Investigation; Home invasion; Rape; Los Angeles

DEDICATION:
“This is for Robert Pepin, translator, editor, friend since the start. Merci beaucoup, mon ami.”

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1
“’Do we have to stay here?’ Moore asked. ‘I mean, look at these people. How can they live like this?’
Ballard surveyed the makeshift shelters made of discarded tarps and construction debris that lined both sides of the underpass. She saw a couple of Sterno cook fires and people milling about at their meager encampments. It was so crowded that some shanties were even pressed up against the mobile toilets the city had put on the sidewalks to preserve some semblance of dignity and sanitation in the area. North of the overpass was a residential zone of apartments fronting the hillside area known as the dell. After multiple reports of people defecating in the streets and yards of the neighborhood, the city came through with the portable toilets. A humanitarian effort, it was called.
‘You ask that like you think they all want to be living under an overpass,’ Ballard said. ‘Like they have a lot of choices. Where are they going to go? The government gives them toilets. It takes their shit away but not much else.’
‘Whatever,’ Moore said. ‘It’s such a blight—every overpass in the fucking city. It’s so third world. People are going to start leaving the city because of this.’
‘They already have,’ Ballard said. ‘Anyway, we’re staying here. I’ve spent the last four New Year’s Eves under here and it’s the safest place to be when the shooting starts.’
They were quiet for a few moments after that. Ballard had thought about leaving herself, maybe going back to Hawaii. It wasn’t because of the intractable problem of homelessness that gripped Los Angeles. It was everything. The city, the job, the life. It had been a bad year with the pandemic and the social unrest and violence. Thepolice department had been vilified, and she along with it. She’d been spat on, figuratively and literally, by the people she thought she stood for and protected. It was a hard lesson, and a sense of futility had set upon her and was deep in the marrow now. She needed some kind of a break. Maybe to go track down her mother in the mountains of Maui and try to reconnect after so many years.”

RATING:
4 stars.

STARTED-FINISHED
11/30/21-12/11/20 ( )

Detective

Another great book from Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch is still in evidence but the main detective character is Renee Ballard. She's a gutsy female character with more than a few of Bosch's character quirks to be acceptable to Connelly's fans.

Renee works the night shift in the Hollywood Division. On New Year's Eve 2020 she is teamed up with another female detective, Lisa Moore, because the LAPD wants all hands on deck. The two have been working on a case of serial sexual assault that take place around midnight on holiday nights. But instead of another sexual assault the two get called to a suspicious death where it looks like the victim maybe got hit by a stray bullet when guns were discharged in the air at midnight. Ballard is convinced it is a homicide and she wants to continue to work the case. Since the Major Crimes Unit is working on another big case, Ballard gets the green light to continue to work it. Her partner goes off on a little vacation with her boyfriend so Ballard is back to working alone. Just as it looks like the sexual assault perp didn't strike on New Year's Eve, a victim comes forward. Moore doesn't want to come back from her vacation which leaves Ballard to investigate both cases. She goes to see her mentor, Harry Bosch, because ballistic results from the murder show that the gun was used in a case Bosch handled when he was on the force. Of course, Bosch is more than eager to help Ballard with her cases and the two team up. The victims of the sexual assaults at first don't seem to share any common characteristics but Ballard discovers something that does link all of them. That's the key to finding the men (yes, men) responsible. And with Bosch's assistance they are also able to pin the murder on someone.Let's hear it for dogged investigators. ( )

I have known for sometime that Connelly was going to put Bosch out to pasture. While I don't think it will be soon it is clear that Ballard will be one of the characters to take up his place.... I suspect Maddie will enter the fray soon also. I really enjoyed this book and like that he didn't run from the current strife happening in police departments. I look forward to the next book. ( )