Being a big fan of Bosch - both the books and the TV series - I started this book with a little trepidation, sort of partly hiding behind the sofa, with a cushion in front of my face, and one eye closed! To be fair and honest, once I had read a few pages, all the defenses I had raised crumbled as I realised that I had nothing to fear from this, the series opener for Mr Connelly's new character Renee Ballard, night shift detective.
I am not sure that it helped that the series was set in the same world as Bosch. There were many familiar faces and places interspersed throughout the book that it most definitely didn't hinder and also made me feel a little more comfortable with all the shiny newness around.
So, Reene works the night shift in Hollywood. Along with mentor/father figure Jenkins, they are responsible for reacting to everything that happens overnight. Then, every morning, each case is handed off to the relevant department for follow-up investigation meaning that they very rarely see a case through. Renee was lucky enough to score this wonderful gig by virtue of the fact she filed a sexual harassment charge against her former boss, Olivas, which also had the side-effect of splitting her up both workwise and personally (he sided with the boss) with her former partner Kenny Chastain.
Then, one night, she gets called to a couple of cases that she just can't let go. The brutal beating of a prostitute and the death of a young woman caught up in a nightclub shooting. She then takes it upon herself to investigate these two cases herself - one with departmental blessing, the other off the books. Things then start to escalate and really get personal for Renee as she suffers the loss of an old (albeit estranged) friend as well as facing her own danger. Can she manage to put her past behind her and muster all her strength to get to the bottom of what really happened that night?
Well... I for one am now a big fan of Renee. I took to her straight away - gotta love a gutsy, tenacious, never-give-up cop! Oh and she's also got a pretty cool dog in Lola whose start in life reflected her owners somewhat. The story she, and her supporting cast, plays out is tightly and flawlessly plotted and kept my attention completely throughout the whole book. Especially impressive considering that there is an awful lot going on with other smaller cases also being worked alongside the two main ones. It does get a bit frenetic towards the end as we race for the finish line in a few things but, all things considered, this upping in pace matched what was going on perfectly and so it would have felt disjointed to me if it was slower.
All in all a cracking series opener which introduces a rather interesting and compelling character that I, for one, can't wait to revisit in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I'm a big fan of Michael Connelly so was excited to receive his new novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
It featured a new protagonist, Renee Ballard who works the night shift for LA Police Department. Working all night and sleeping and surfing the waves all day Renee is an interesting character with a backstory that is gradually revealed as the book progresses.
In the book Renee investigates several incidents that occur on her watch including a horrific attack on a transgender woman and a shooting in a night club that leaves a number of people dead including a waitress, Trying to find out why the shooting happened brings Renee into conflict with her own department where she has a number of enemies due to an earlier sexual harassment claim against a colleague which she lost.
Her investigation of the attack also lands her in big trouble both with the department and the possible perpetrator whom she manages to track down on her own.
There were a lot of characters and sub plots in this novel which made it hard to follow at times. I liked Renee as a character but I did not find the book quite as compelling as Connelly's Bosch and Haller series.
However it was well researched with lots of interesting facts and forensics. It was good to have a female protagonist as the lead in a Connelly novel and I will be keen to read the next installment when it is published. I am wondering whether Renee will eventually find her way into the Bosch and Haller books too!

I was given an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and independent review.

I have read a lot of Connelly's previous books and enjoyed them. This one features a new lead character, Renee Ballard who is strong, eager and keen, and tenacious when working on her cases. A well written,steady paced police procedural which kept me interested throughout.
Recommended. 4.5****

8/10

As soon as this popped up on NetGalley there was no way I wasn't requesting this. Michael Connelly is a favourite of mine and he can weave a thriller with ease. It's the start of a (potential) new series with a female as a lead which added a whole different dimension to some of his other work and I was keen to see how it would all pan out.

It'd be quite easy to label this as Hermione Bosch which would be lazy and unjust but that was sort of how I felt it would read going into this. Harry Bosch will need to retire at some point and it makes sense to try something new (personally I hope for more Micky Haller books too) and this keeps the police procedural aspect going which Connelly excels at.

There are about 4 main strands to this story, more hectic than the usual Bosch novel, but all of them weave in and out and keep the pace flowing and intrigue levels high. Lots happen throughout and there are a number of twists and turns as would be expected which kept me guessing throughout.

I was happy with the main characters development and how easy it was to read about her exploits. The supporting cast weren't massively fleshed out but that might come at a later date. I'd be more than happy to read more in this series should there be more written in the future.

I'm a great fan of Michael Connelly and I was so pleased to be introduced to Renee Ballard, his latest protagonist. She reminded me somehow of a younger, female Bosch in some ways which is not to say she isn't a well rounded character in her own right.
Slightly damaged, fierce and on the hunt for "Big Evil". I loved every page!

Michael Connelly has created another strong and credible character in Renee Ballard. Great story, didn't see the twist at the end. Can't wait for 'when Renee met Harry' what a pairing that would make.

A mostly wonderful new start for Michael Connelly. He's created a new protagonist, Reneé Ballard, who is tough and smart and, best of all, not a Bosch-clone. When long-series authors create new characters, they are often just re-skinning of their most successful leads. In this case, Reneé stands and think on her own. Well done (at least the first 3/4 of the book. More on that later....)

And the new Reneé is set in the familiar police-world-L.A. that we know and love from Bosch. The detailed police work, the gritty streets of L.A., the rarified big houses up in the hills, the terrific mysteries and villains, the hidden truths. All terrific here, all clearly [b]shouting MICHAEL CONNELLY IS THE BEST.[/b]

We also see Connelly's crime tales brought fully into the 21st century. The detail on smartphone, police database and information technology capabilities shows he's done some real work to update his world. Well done! I very much enjoyed not just the modern tech, but Connelly's [b]confidence[/b] and understanding of it, and how it affects the action and plot. Wonderful!

In [b]The Late Show[/b] we have three or four main plots, a bit more than the usual Bosch.
a) Credit card theft
b) Assault on prostitute
c) Gang murder in a club
d) sub-plot of Ballard's betrayal by her ex-partner and boss

ALL of these are masterfully woven together, paced perfectly, unlike the badly flawed [b]The Wrong Side of Goodbye[/b]. Although that book has, perhaps, my favourite title of all Bosch ([b]The Concrete Blonde[/b] comes close), the book's structure and pacing were terrible. The plots were interwoven very poorly, which I attribute to Connelly's being distracted by the superb Amazon [b]Bosch[/b] tv series.

As I said, the plots/stories in this book are woven so well, with just the right amount of page coverage of each plot before switching to another, and then to the next. Superbly done. The overall pacing is terrific. I read [b]The Late Show[/b] in one day, interrupted only by chores and meals. What great fun, and so nice to see Connelly back in form!

[b]However, the last 1/4 of the book is a chaotic mess.
Very sad. Very disappointing.[/b]
Note: I was given an advance copy by NetGalley.com, Thank you. This copy had horrific typography flaws, see below. I am also worried that perhaps the last 1/4 of my advance copy was "not finished". It sure reads that way...

So many plot threads, developed so well in the first 3/4 of the book, are suddenly dropped onto the floor like a large windchime. CLANG CRASH BONG. Switching between the 3 or 4 plots is far too fast, with puzzling clues and events not developed, and leaving the reader confused and disappointed. It seems the narrative changes 1,000 times in the last 50-60 pages of the book. The eventual resolution concept is very good, but very very clumsily presented here. It's almost as if Connelly got tired of this book (we've seen this before, especially in older authors, ref: Robert B. Parker's later Spenser books) and just swept all the potentially great plot resolutions into a bucket. Very upsetting, really.

What a sad way to end a superb book. I can only hope that my advance copy was subsequently editted to fulfil the wonderful potential of Connelly's newest creation.


Quotes and notes:

1. Ballard feels "her mission" - superb!
[i]The adrenaline jolt Ballard had felt earlier now turned into a locomotive charging through her veins. To her mind, Trent was no longer just a person of interest. The train had gone by that stop. She believed he was her man, and there was nothing quite like that moment of knowing. It was the Holy Grail of detective work. It had nothing to do with evidence or legal procedure or probable cause. It was just knowing it in your gut. Nothing in her life beat it. It had been a long time coming to her on the late show but now she felt it and she knew deep down it was the reason she would never quit, no matter where they put her or what they said about her.[/i]

2. Classic Connelly Introspection -
[i]... the scent of adrenalized perspiration left in her blouse from that moment when Nettles left the room and she saw he had a gun. She paused for a moment to relive that thrill. The feeling was addictive and dangerous, and she wondered whether there might be something wrong with her for craving it.[/i]

3. The binding of victim and detective - Classic Connelly - Wonderful -
[i]Ballard felt that she had let her down by putting her own agenda with Chastain first. It went to the sacred bond that existed between homicide victims and the detectives who speak for them. It wasn’t Ballard’s case but Haddel was her victim and the bond was there.[/i]

4. There are just-enough cross-links with Bosch, both in characters and events, to be satisfying
[i]She had played the part in an episode of a television show called [b]Bosch[/b], which Ballard knew was based on the exploits of a now-retired LAPD detective who had formerly worked at RHD and the Hollywood detective bureau.[/i]

5. The continuation of The Mission, across time and authors - love it
[i]Ballard had been in the Dancers and knew the club got its name from a club in the great L.A. novel [b]The Long Goodbye[/b].[/i]


___________________________
Preview eBook Format Abortion :(

Wow, this preview from NetGalley is a hard format to plow through. You see of these ten long run-ons or more per page!

“TheDancerswasnexttoanoldSpanish-stylebuildingwitha centercourtyardandgarden.Ithadbeenanoutdoorseatingarea for the Cat and Fiddle, an English pub and major hangout for off-duty and sometimes not-off-duty officers from the nearby HollywoodStation.Butitwentoutofbusinessatleasttwoyears earlier—a victim of rising lease rates in Hollywood—and was vacant.Ithadnowbeencommandeeredasawitnesscorral.”

A ‘next new’ book by Michael Connelly is always exciting; a new series by Connelly is even more exciting, and the way he sets out his stall in the first paragraph of The Late Show suggests a renewed interest in and connexion with social issues including the LAPD’s politics, workplace harassment, trans prostitution, and, casually, cleverly, race. Connelly has almost always put men at the centre of his fictional universe, leaving women in the crime genres’ usual subjects. That has included most of Bosch’s partners (but not his daughter); Mickey Haller is a different kettle of fish. The protagonist here is Renee Ballard, a Hawaiian (only slightly dark-skinned) who mainly grew up with her Hawaiian grandmother in Ventura, and who works the night shift in the Hollywood station, having been demoted and despatched there for accusing her former boss of sexual harassment. Everybody knew he was guilty, but nobody, including her partner, put his hand up. There don’t seem to be any female hands going up at all, and the shortage of women cops remains.
Renee is frustrated by her new partner, understandably burnt out and with a wife suffering from cancer; by never getting to see a case through; and—it must be said—by not having much of a life outside the job. She paddles, taking good care of her boards while keeping up her strength; she has a rescued dog that has to spend more time with a carer than is good for her; her grandmother; and not much else. What marks the biggest surprise is change in the way LA detectives treat the people they protect and serve, and the new sensitivity which leads Ballard and Jenkins to change the role of lead depending upon the gender of the victim they interview.
Their night begins with a wallet and credit card theft, then a transitioning Hispanic man who’s been kidnapped, badly beaten, and dumped in a parking lot, the cops are summoned to a multi-victim shooting in a nightclub. As in the Bosch or Lincoln Lawyer series, what appear to be independent crimes turn out to be thematically interwoven, and Bosch’s humanity (‘everybody counts’) shifts the gears of LAPD investigations to put a woman in the centre. The book is, as usual, informative about police procedure and police slang, and Connelly’s eye for particularities and detail contributes to his creation of a complex place in our time.
If there appears to be an absence of everyday misogyny and racism, it becomes clear that sympathy for Ballard is present but unexpressed, though her former partner’s failure to back her remains a sore. Ballard takes herself to task as she has to make decisions about how to live as a victim of her colleagues, and finally to deal with self-serving apologies (of a sort—tough guys aren’t good at apologies) from the men who wrecked her career and still have power over her, who own the narrative of what went wrong. There is a final surprise, but I would never spoil another reader's pleasure.

Michael Connelly has begun an exciting new series with a new LAPD detective, Renee Ballard, who with her by the book partner, Jenkins, works the Hollywood nightshift, otherwise referred to as The Late Show. This means they pick up cases, which are then passed on to the dayshift cops, Renee has been shunted onto the Late Show because she had the temerity to file a sexual harassment complaint against the head of the homicide team, Lieutenant Robert Olivas. She had been betrayed by her then partner, Kenny Chastain, who refused to back her up. Renee is tenacious, courageous, determined and a gifted detective who has no qualms about doing whatever is required to bring down the evil she encounters on her job. Her father died whilst surfing, although this has not put her off continuing to enbrace surfing and the itinerant lifestyle that often accompanies it using her grandmother, Tutu's home, as her permanent address. It's her way of diffusing the dangers and tensions experienced on the job. She rescued her dog, Lola, from an abusive scenario, earning her Lola's lifelong loyalty.

On one busy night, Renee catches three cases, a credit card burglary, a vicious beating that almost kills Ramona Ramone, a prostitute undergoing a sex change, and a shooting spree that kills three men, a bouncer and a waitress at the Dancers Club. However, this time she wants to run with the cases, and through a mixture of stealth and manipulation, begins her investigations working through the days. Jenkins refuses to back her on this, but Renee is fine with being a loner and carries on regardless. The Dancers Club case is headed by Olivas who will not tolerate Renee's presence on his team. However, when her ex-partner, Chastain, is shot dead, Renee cannot leave it alone despite what Chastain did to her. In the meantime, the dirty politics in the LAPD means that there are people who cannot wait to get rid of her, ensuring Renee has to watch her back constantly. Renee's investigations put her into the path of dangerous and ruthless people, people who are willing to kill, but Renee has every intention of surviving.

Connelly has written a thoroughly gripping novel with faultless plotting. His new heroine is offbeat, resilient and so very compelling and interesting as a character. The storylines are full of the details and procedures of police investigations which highlight the research the author must have done. The narrative is tense, suspenseful and twisted. A book that I found very hard to put down. A great new series and a brilliant read. Highly recommended. Thanks to Orion for an ARC.