The Late Show by Michael Connelly was the last book I read in 2021. This 2017 release features a new character, Detective Renée Ballard. She has a similar profile to Connelly’s other main characters. Not a bad plotline for the series opener, but it is hard to tell if Ballard will develop as a character in her own right or is just a vehicle to extend the Bosch storyline.
Dive deeper into The Late Show on the author’s site.
The Late Show
By Michael Connelly
A new thriller introducing a driven young detective trying to prove herself in the LAPD.
Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she’s been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.
But one night she catches two cases she doesn’t want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her own partner’s wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the cases entwine they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won’t give up her job no matter what the department throws at her.
Published July 18, 2017
387 pages (print)