Ironwood

 

Connelly is the king of thrillers and the men at MenReadingBooks have read most of his 40+ novels. Just one year ago, I read and reviewed the first book in a new series, Nightshade, which I rated very highly. The author is able to keep his stories and characters very interesting and believable.

In Ironwood, Detective Stilwell suspects that one of his new deputies on Catalina Island is a serial killer. A murder has occurred, but it happened a few years earlier, and this became a thing when the woman's bones were uncovered in a remote area of Catalina Island. It turned out that there have been a series of murders of women who were hiking alone through wilderness trails in California. Stilwell continues to get flack from his captain who works out of his office in Long Beach. When the protagonist is trying to set a trap, another one of his new deputies is murdered, and a second officer is shot in the throat but survives. It seems corruption is rampant on Catalina.

Once again, Stilwell, or "Stil" as he is called by most people he knows, has found life on Catalina as highly desirable, compared to his life on the mainland, or "overland" as the people on Catalina call it. Usually, as was initially the case with Stil, a transfer to Catalina was a punishment for having done something wrong. However, he began to realize that being sent to the island was just what he needed. His girlfriend Tasha has been promoted to acting Harbor Master, and their relationship is evolving. The story involves corruption, cartel murders, small crime, and Stil's relentless pursuit of clues in the face of a captain who is mostly focused on any publicity that would make his operation look bad. 

I consumed this story in audiobook format, and the reader was excellent. Like nearly all of Connelly's books, it gets a highly favorable review from me. You won't be disappointed.

Nightshade

 

Michael Connelly has written about 40 novels and Nightshade is unrelated to the Bosch series of 24 books and the Lincoln Lawyer series of 7 books, etc. Men Reading Books has reviewed nearly all of Connelly’s work. None of the usual characters were mentioned in this story. A new protagonist has been introduced, Detective Stillwell who has been assigned to Catalina Island for the last year. Catalina is 22 miles offshore from Los Angeles. He had been sent to Catalina as punishment for his behavior in a murder investigation in Long Beach when he knew a compatriot Detective Ahern (fondly referred to by his associates as A-Hole) had cut corners on a case and wrongfully got an old buddy freed of charges. Stillwell (who A-Hold referred to as Stillborn) was enraged, but he made a mistake in the way he addressed the problem and his contentions about A-Hole were not supported. So, he found himself out of the limelight and in a position on Catalina that typically was not a place where one could ever get promoted. He was ordered to keep his investigation and any police activities confined to the island and to do no such detective work on the main land.

 

Connelly presented Catalina as the quiet and beautiful idyllic place that it is. Rather than hating this assignment, Stillwell found himself to be quite happy with the style of life there. Little happened during the weekdays, and the island tended to fill up with tourists for the weekend when drunks was the most interesting work for  the police. It was also a haven for the wealthy who built weekend palatial homes there. The wealthy arrived in their yachts and often belonged to the exclusive Black Marlin Club.

 

This was a story of the huge gap between the lifestyle of the very rich and that of people who had a more typical income. There were also people with little income who simply came to the remote areas of the island to avoid other people for one reason or another. There was a cast of people who either lived there or arrived on weekends to service the wealthy ones.

 

There were three crimes that occurred that resulted in Stillwell having to once again associate with A-Hole and the other officers who saw Stillwell as an outsider. The first crime was the murder of a Buffalo which roam about the mostly deserted island. The second had to do with the seemingly unprovoked assault of one of Stillwell’s deputies when a bar patron hit the unsuspecting deputy over the head with a wine bottle. The third crime had to do with the murder of a waitress from the Black Marlin Club who had been on gold digging activities with the male members. Her body was found wrapped around an anchor on the floor of the Avalon Harbor. Meanwhile, Stillwell began a romance with a native of the island, Tash (short for Natasha), and we learned about the other typical social activities that went on for the locals.

 

I thought this was an engaging novel. As Bosch essentially aged out as being a great protagonist, we now have a new honest and determined detective who is unwilling to let crimes go unsolved and criminals go unpunished. Connelly has done it again and I hope to read more of Detective Stillwell.

Resurrection Walk

Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly is the most recent of the Lincoln Lawyer series, the seventh novel which was published in 2023. Harry Bosch has retired from being a homicide investigator for the police department, but he has developed some form of cancer for which he was being treated with chemotherapy at UCLA, so he was sick from both his illness and the cure. He has gone to work on a part-time basis for his half-brother, Mickey Haller, the Lincoln Lawyer. However, after working for the entirely of his career on the prosecution side, Haller was a tried and true defense attorney who is hated by all cops and the prosecuting attorneys for getting people off. Haller’s license plate on one of his blue Lincoln’s is “I Walk’em.” Meanwhile, Harry has a conflict about working for any criminals, which was Haller’s specialty.

 

The book begins with the exciting end to the prison term for Jorge Ochoa who has been behind bars for 14 years for a crime he did not commit shooting a cop. Not only was Haller able to prove Ochoa was not guilty, but rather, that he was actually innocent of the crime he was accused of doing,. The Ochoas were celebrating, as were the entire Haller defense team. Jorge had been held at Corcoran State Prison, a place that was dedicated to housing lifers, and it was rare for anyone to get released. Usually death had been the only way out, whether than by old age or by murder.

 

Harry’s part-time work for Haller, in addition to being Haller’s driver, was supposed to be limited to looking through the stacks of mail from prisoners who wanted Haller to represent them, but of course, most of those people were really guilty. However, given his long life in prosecutorial cases, Harry had a gift for quickly going through such letters and files to determine if any of them deserved another look. He found one such case of Lucinda Sands who had been accused of shooting and killing her former husband who happened to be an LA cop. Lucinda, or Cindy, had already been in jail for six years. She claimed her innocence and that her former attorney had gotten her to plead guilty in order avoid a life sentence. Cindy wanted to get out of jail so she could be a mother to her 14-year-old son.

 

This was another good court room drama in which Haller bounced back and forth between thinking he had a path to victory for his client, then to seemingly impossible roadblocks by the legal system that would keep her in prison for the duration of her sentence. Connelly used his usual cast of characters and the story was also about the slowly building relationship of the half-brothers.

The Law of Innocence

 

The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly is the sixth of seven books in the Lincoln Lawyer series. Defense star attorney Mickey Haller had just won another case, setting an innocent man free. He spent several hours in a bar while celebrating with his team although Haller had been sober for about five years. When he was pulled over by a cop on his way home, he was baffled because he knew he had not violated and traffic rules. It was then that he found that his license plate was missing, and allegedly, that was why the cop pulled him over. Upon was appeared to be blood dripping from his trunk, the cop demanded that he open the trunk, and that was when they discovered the body of one of Haller’s former clients who had been shot in the head. Haller was promptly taken to jail and charged with murder.

 

This book had Connelly’s usual cast of great characters. The young DA was hard hitting and uncompromising. She clearly believed that Haller was guilty and that this would be a great victory for her. Haller planned to have his up and coming law partner, Jennifer Arronson, be his co-council on the case. She was making progress until she was called away to be with her father who was dying. Interestingly, Haller’s first wife. Maggie McPherson, a life-time prosecutor, then stepped into take over the defense co-council role. This was another dramatic courtroom drama of highs and lows as the case developed.

 

To some extent, those of us who love such murder mysteries and thrillers, must be willing to accept some hits on reality testing of these stories. I think Connelly’s remarkable success with this series has been do in part to making the circumstances of his characters to be believable. However, this book does not live up to that standard. It just seemed ridiculous to me that the mighty Lincoln Lawyer was blindly held for a crime he would not have committed. Unlike my take on nearly ever book Connelly has written, I simply can’t give this one a solid recommendation.

The Reversal

The Reversal is the third Lincoln Lawyer novel by Michael Connelly. Defense attorney Mickey Haller makes the stunning decision to accept a special appointment from the District Attorney of Los Angeles, to prosecute the retrial of Jason Jessup, a man who has sat in jail for 24 years for a crime he allegedly committed 24 years in the past. The crime, a murder of a 12 year old girl, was done before DNA evidence was allowed into the court, but the DNA from sperm found on the girl’s dress was not from Jessup, which seems to contradict the guilty verdict which had sent him to live in prison. This was a potentially highly embarrassing to the DA’s office and the DA told Haller that he had to step outside of his office to get an attorney who would be believed to push the matter forward. Pretrial publicity about this matter was highly favorable to Jessup.

 

Haller’s decision to take the case gave him the opportunity to name his exwife Maggie McPherson, as his second chair for the case. She was not appreciated by the new DA since she had supported Haller in his recent failed attempt to run for DA, and she had been moved out of LA’s central office to the backwater of the Van Nuys division. One of the conditions of Haller accepting the case is that when they got a guilty verdict, that Maggie would be shuttled back to the major crimes in the downtown office. The trial also meant that Haller’s half-brother, Harry Bosch would work for Haller as his investigator.

 

This was a high action drama, great court room action, and lots of content from outside the courtroom to support the plot. There were surprises that I did not see coming. I keep wondering which of these books is Connelly at his best, and it’s hard to choose from this master of the crime drama.

 

East Coast Don reviewed this book 15 years ago, and his more complete review is available in the blog. I recommend you to that.

The Brass Verdict

After being underwhelmed by Connelly’s Lincoln Lawyer novel The Gods of Guilt, in my opinion he remains the master of this crime genre with The Brass Verdict. This book was reviewed in more detail in the blog on 9/15/11 by Midwest Dave. It’s an excellent review so please refer to that. This is the story in which defense attorney Mickey Haller meets his half-brother, LA police detective Harry Bosch. Bosch is apparently aware of them having a father in common, but Haller does not figure that out until the end of the book. Although there is constant friction between these two figures that have historically been on opposite sides of criminal trials, Bosch and Haller begrudgingly learn to work together.

As the novel begins, Haller has been out of lawyerly action for more than a year while coming to terms with his pain drug addiction, and then ready to get back into action although still without any clients of his own, his colleague Jerry Vincent is murdered and Vincent’s entire caseload is given to Haller, including the very big case of Walter Elliott, an important movie executive in LA. Elliott who had been accused of murdering his wife and her lover in Elliot's Malibu beach house. The pace of the plot is perfect, and I could hardly turn off the audio version. Great characters, great plot with unexpected twists, good writing – Connelly at his best.

The Gods of Guilt

 

Within the Bosch series, Michael Connelly has written the Lincoln Lawyer series which consists of seven books, and I’ve been on a quest to read any of the Connelly novels that I’ve missed, or reread others. The Gods of Guilt is his fifth Lincoln Lawyer story, and unlike the rest of his catalogue, this one may not have been the best. The title is a reference to the jury to which he pitches his stories. By reminding himself that all accused people have a right to a good defense, Haller harnesses his own guilt over helping to free some people and reduce the sentence of others who have done truly bad acts against fellow humans. This is mostly a courtroom drama. As usual Connelly has created a cast of characters that are present and enrich the experience. His first ex-wife with whom he had his one child, is a skilled prosecutor, and his second wife is his case and office manager. Meanwhile, she has gotten married to his investigator. Over the course of his drama, Micky Haller goes through the ups and downs of a litigator, first having a great plan for a trial which then falls apart only to head in a different direction. Although Connelly's best, I was adequately entertained as I listened to the audio version while continue my early morning dog walking activities.

The Fifth Witness

 

This book was beautifully reviewed by Midwest Dave in 2011, and I refer you to that. I'm in agreement with Dave about the quality of this book. Connelly just keeps delivering great murder mysteries. This one is almost entirely in the courtroom as Haller seems to be on top of things, only to be sent back to the drawing board as he encounters a skilled prosecutor. The tie to the financial crisis caused by fraudulent lending practices really made this book sing. I listened as I did my daily dog walks, and I was fully entertained.

Two Kinds of Truth

 Two Kinds of Truth was published by Michael Connelly in 2017, and Midwest Dave wrote a beautiful review of the story that same year. I refer you to his review. I stumbled across this novel when I was looking for an audiobook on Libby. Connelly has yet to disappoint and I wonder if this could be one of his best novels. Of course, I almost always have the same question when I finish one of his books. I’ve lost count – has he now written about 70 novels in the last 35 years? Once again, Connelly gets my strongest recommendation for this novel.

The Waiting

 

The Waiting is, at least Connelly's 44th book since his first novel in 1992. This one is subtitled "A Ballard and Bosch Novel." I always have high expectations of Connelly's character development and plot line, and he has not disappointed. Although it's hard for me to rate his books since I think they are all pretty good, this one is surely one of his best.

The book begins with Ballard surfing, her best stress reducer. When she gets out of the ocean and returns to her car, she finds the contents in her car have been stolen, including her gun and badge. She has been running the open and unsolved case department, and based on recent conflicts in the robbery division, she is highly alert for any new difficulties. Also she is understandably afraid of the very real misogyny in the LAPD. She fears being fired from the job she loves, solving cold cases. For fear of more retaliation, she is reluctant to declare the the loss of her gun and badge, so she decided to use her detective skills to pursue the robbers without actually reporting it. In the process of doing so, she runs into evidence of a much bigger crime, a terrorist event on the Malibu pier which is scheduled just a week away.

As is typical of the Bosch series, there are many crime stories happening at the same time, and Maddie Bosch appears as a volunteer in Ballard's department. Maddie announces that she thinks she has solved the oldest and most famous crime in LA history, a 74 year-old crime, the rape and murder of the Black Dahlia, a specific unsolved crime that has come up time and again in the Bosch series. However, at the same time, there is a bitter political war happening between the new Chief of Police and the District Attorney.

As always, Connelly is a master at weaving together the various plot lines. If this is your genre, then she should be your book.

1567. The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly

The Concrete Blonde is the third novel in the Harry Bosch series by the master crime writer, Michael Connelly. It was originally published in 1994 and was reviewed in this blog by ECD in 2011. Unfortunately that review has been corrupted in the years since we began writing reviews. It’s a follow-up book to The Black Ice which cannot be found in the blog either, although I’m sure all of the reviewers here have read it. That was a story about a serial killer known as the Dollmaker, which ended with Bosch shooting and killing the suspected killer. The Concrete Blonde is a follow-up novel in which more similar murders have been discovered. Bosch began to be uncertain that he had really solved the prior case. Meanwhile, the wife of the murdered man is suing the LAPD and Detective Bosch for having killed the wrong man. In the course of this, we learn more about Harry’s early life, having been born to a prostitute who was murdered when he was 11 years old. That murder was never solved, but this Dollmaker case forced Harry to looked at unexplored parts of himself, a most painful process. Once again, these early Bosch books show why Connelly is the king of crime novel writers.

1544. The Night Fire by Michael Connelly

I’m stunned that there is no review of Michael Connelly’s The Night Fire in this blog. I’ve read it before and just listened to it again in audiobook format (via Libby, the library app). This story is, once again, Connelly at his best. It’s the third of five novels in his Renee Ballard series. Ballard is a compelling character who Connelly could develop into his primary protagonist.

 

Briefly, in this novel, Bosch has been forcibly retired from his LAPD detective job, and he is temporarily working on cold cases for the San Fernando PD. He engages Renee Ballard’s help with getting data from LAPD that he can no longer access as he does cold cases for San Fernando as well as his own list of cold unsolved cases from his years with the LAPD. For the most part, he continues to be shunned by the LA detectives because of their misperception that he has gone over to the dark side by not blindly supporting all police work and actually assisting his half-brother defense lawyer Mickey Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer).

 

There was a nighttime fire in the tent of a vagrant that resulted in the guy’s death, and it was written off as an accident, a theory that did not sit right with Bosch. As is typical of Connelly, while the main plot develops, Bosch and Ballard solve some other cases while trying to disguise the fact from the other detectives that Bosch is involved. It’s one of the peripheral stories that unexpectedly gets tied to the main plot. The book is a rapid page-turner, and it gets a 5/5 rating from me. It was a pleasure to listen to this story (which also got some airtime in the tv series).

#1528. The Narrows by Michael Connelly

The Poet was published in 1996, which is when Connelly introduced FBI Agent Rachel Walling, but the sequel, The Narrows was not published until 2004 with at least nine other books published during that span of time. He is incredibly prolific, and in The Narrows, we get to see Agent Walling again. Although it’s hard to really choose which of Connelly’s novels are the best, it’s my opinion that in The Poet and The Narrows, we see him at his finest.

 

For me, The Narrows was another dog walking audiobook. I did provide a brief ravingreview on 6/10/10, but after a 13 year hiatus, I decided to listen in an audiobook. So, if you want that review, search for it in this blog. You won’t go wrong by reading this one.

 

West Coast Don

#1520 The Black Echo (audiobook) by Michael Connelly

The Black Echo is the very first of the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly. His most recent, Desert Star was reviewed earlier this year. We at MRB have reviewed most, if not all of the Bosch novels, so you know that we really appreciate Connelly’s craft. I reviewed this book on 6/1/09, so it may have been my first review for the blog. I only gave it a modestly positive rating, and nearly 14 years later, after having read more than 1,000 crime novels since that date, I wonder what the hell I was thinking. This time, I listened to the audiobook which is performed by Titus Welliver, the same actor who plays Bosch in the 7 year run of TV shows. Welliver is Bosch, and not only does Welliver deliver Bosch’s lines well, he narrates the rest of the book with incredible skill. Even though I was familiar with the storyline, listening to the book was a very favorable experience. It was hard to stop listening even when it was time to turn out the lights. After all, this novel won the Edgar Award for best first mystery novel.

 

In Black Echo, Harry had been transferred away from his desired homicide division as a punishment for his self-determined anti-hierarchy behaviors. He discovered a dead man in a drainpipe who just happened to be one of his fellow tunnel rats from Vietnam. The emotional trauma of having been in the tunnels was relieved by Harry as he worked to solve a crime that took him into the sewer tunnels of Los Angeles. Black Echo was a term the tunnel rats used when they were in a tunnel with anxiety levels at maximum, that they were sure the enemy could hear the echo of their heart rates. As we’ve seen with in so many Bosch books, he is driven by justice and he is repeatedly put in situations which call for him to compromise.

 

There are some bonus sections with the audiobook. Connelly writes about his relationship with his first agent, and then the second agent. Welliver reads an intro by James Lee Burke, this being a time when Connelly was an unknown novelist. After the conclusion of the book, there was a conversation between Welliver and Connelly about the collaboration, and there was more information about the screen writing for the TV series. I’ve learned to appreciate Connelly’s craft at crime novels, and it’s my opinion that he is the king. This was a 5-star production.

#1514 Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly

 

Dark Sacred Night is the second book (2018) of the Renee Ballard series by Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch has retired as a homicide detective from LAPD, but he’s back working for the San Fernando Police Department on a part-time basis. The San Fernando Valley, in the northern part of LA, is in the midst of a significant gang war. I thought I had read this novel before, but it is not previously reviewed in this blog. It is Connelly at his best. The significant parts of this book have to do with Bosch and Ballard agreeing to be a team on old cases, and the final end to the Daisy and Elizabeth mystery – the resolution of the Daisy’s murder at the age of 15 (specifically a case Bosch has been pursuing for many years), and the sad end of Elizabeth’s long history of drug abuse and relapse. In the course of the main plot, Connelly and Ballard solve a couple other cases and learn to trust each other. It’s a very good story – don’t miss it.

#1503 The Poet by Michael Connelly

Michael Connelly published The Poet in 1996. He had already written four books about his great detective, Harry Bosch of the LAPD. Connelly went on to write at least 23 books about Bosch, and this was the first of three books about Jack McEvoy. McEvoy was a writer for Denver’s Rocky Mountain News, and he wrote about real murders. This story began with the murder of McEvoy’s twin brother, Sean, who was a Denver police homicide detective who was obsessed with solving the murder of a young boy which had occurred a few months before his own death. Initially, Sean’s death was attributed to suicide and his inability to come to grips with the mystery of the boy’s death, but it was Jack who was also obsessed with his brother’s death which he thought, despite the overwhelming evidence of suicide, that his brother would never have taken his own life. 

 

As McEvoy began his own investigation, he came to believe that his brother’s suicide had been faked by a serial killer who was targeting homicide detectives around the country. With the multi-state dimension of multiple murders, the FBI became involved, but since McEvoy was a writer, no one in law enforcement was willing to trust him. However, he does develop a love interest with a female FBI agent. The action moves quickly from Denver, to Florida, and then to L.A., all sites of more murders. 

 

This story was as dark as any that I remember from Connelly. My fellow reviewer East Coast Don remembers having read this book, but that was before we began this blog in 2009. (We recently wrote our 1,501^st post.) In addition to grisly murders, it was the description of terrible child pornography which could be ordered on the internet which took the story to it’s darkest moments. 

 

But keep in mind that Connelly is a master mystery writer, and this story is no exception. I literally could not put the book now. Even though I was looking for the storyline twists for which Connelly is famous, I was surprised once again where he took this story, double twists in the last pages of the novel. This dark novel was evidence of Connelly at his best. 27 years after it was published, this story still has legs. Although it was previously reviewed in the blog by ECD (with an A+ rating), I’m now going to read the second book in the series, The Scarecrow.

 

West Coast Don

#1493. Desert Star by Michael Connelly

Desert Star by Michael Connelly is his latest book, most of which have been reviewed in this blog. We are fans of his writing. This is the fifth in the series of five books about Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch, and their attempts to solve murders. The set up for this story begins a year after Ballard quit the LAPD detectives in the face of numerous problems with the department. However, Ballard was a skilled detective that the department needed. Now there’s a new police chief who offered Ballard a deal she could not pass up – she could rebuild the cold case unit in the elite Robbery Homicide Division. The reopening was essentially sponsored by a councilman whose 16-year-old sister had been a murder victim of a crime that had never been solved. 

 

Meanwhile, although he had already retired, Bosch was still bothered by the unsolved case of the murder of a family. Bosch had continued to try to solve the case on his own, but he needed the tools of the LAPD to really pursue the matter, and Ballard offered him the chance to do that. However, with the political pressure of the councilman, Ballard was forced to get Bosch to work on that case, too. Bosch did not like that at all, but when Ballard got a “cold hit,” which connected the death of the sister to a similar crime, indicating that a a psychopathic killer had been at work in LA for years, Bosch got busy with that case, too. So, there were two murderers that Bosch and Ballard were pursuing.

 

The reader of Desert Star delivers what we’ve come to expect from Connelly – a great crime novel. Strong characters surround the main character, and rich dialogue ensues. It should not be a surprise that I give this one a 5-star rating. However, Connelly leaves us with the possibility that this could be the final Bosch novel, although Ballard and Bosch’s daughter Maddy (who is working her way up in the LAPD), are available subjects for Connelly to write about, and I hope he does.

 

West Coast Don

 

Fair Warning by Michael Conelly

Remember reporter Jack McEvoy from The Scarecrow in 2009 and The Poet in 1996?  You do if you are a Michael Connelly nerd like me.  McEvoy returns in Fair Warning, the namesake of his employer, and the name of a consumer watch website.  Jack is restless as a consumer advocate reporter and haphazardly stumbles upon a murder investigation.  The murder was of Tina Portrero, a woman he had briefly dated a year earlier.  He is drawn into the investigation because the police interview him as a person of interest.  But further sleuthing leads him to a story about DNA being collected by ancestry type companies who self-regulate and sell their data to anyone interested, including men in involuntary celibate (Incel) groups who hate women to the point of violence and murder.  Jack engages his former love interest and former FBI profiler, Rachel Waller to help in his investigation.  They’re stirring of the pot soon brings the perpetrators out in the open and all involved in or with knowledge of the diabolical scheme become targets including Jack and Rachel.

Michael Connelly proves again he doesn’t need his beloved Harry Bosch as his protagonist to write a great story.  His ability to highlight his characters’ flaws yet compel the reader to love them anyway, comes through in his latest thriller… great entertainment.  Hope we don’t need to wait ten years for more.

Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch is in his sixties now but shows no sign of slowing down.  Banished from the LAPD for political entanglements, he works cold cases for the San Fernando Police Department as a volunteer.  He repurposes an old retired jail cell across the street from the police station to serve as his office.  Boxes of old unsolved case files can be locked in his office and an old wooden door laid flat and supported by the file boxes functions as his desk.  Harry relishes the solitude but also enjoys his role as mentor and instructor for the three person SFPD detective squad.  With Maddie away at college, this seems the perfect venue for Harry to fulfill his need to help the helpless by doing what he does best… solve murders of people labeled by society as too unimportant to rectify.

Harry is also expected to work some current cases for SFPD… the murder cases.  Two pharmacists, a father and son are shot and killed execution style in their store.  Evidence points toward a pill shill scam orchestrated by the Russian mob.  Harry finds one of his old partners, J. Edgar now working for the medical board assigned to monitor drug prescriptions.  Edgar has contacts with the DEA and hooks Harry up undercover as a homeless opioid addicted pill shill.  He joins a group of desperate addicts who take questionable prescriptions for opioids to numerous pharmacies then turn the pills over to the Russian mob for resale on the streets.  The desperados are flown in an old parachute jump plane to various cities, rich with pharmacies, all over California and are housed in a tent farm in the desert.  Harry hopes to assist the DEA in finding the mob leader as well as the murderers… a dangerous endeavor.

Meanwhile, bureaucratic wheels are turning to free the long-imprisoned Preston Borders who has new evidence that Bosch, once upon a time, framed him.  Harry arrested Borders decades earlier for the rape and murder of a young woman and was instrumental in putting him away.  Now armed with a new lawyer and DNA evidence, Borders is accusing Bosch of planting evidence that wrongly convicted the good citizen.  Bosch remembers the case well and knows in his soul that Borders is guilty.  But Harry’s over zealous reputation and his nasty separation from the LAPD have everyone including his former trusted partner, his half-brother, Mickey Haller and his daughter questioning his actions.  Harry’s reputation as well as everything he stands for is on the line.  He hires Mickey as legal counsel and puts his investigative skills to work to refute Borders’ claim.

Connelly has been my favorite author for decades and shows no sign of letting up.  Harry Bosch’s profound need to help the helpless, no matter who they are, whether he is paid or not, keeps him alive as a human being and as an extraordinary protagonist for a fiction writer.  What will Connelly do next to extend the career and adventures of Harry Bosch?  How is it possible after twenty books to keep getting better and better?

The Late Show by Michael Connelly

The late show, or late shift in the LAPD is where political outcasts with insufficient cause for firing are assigned.  Detectives merely triage criminal cases and hand them off to the day shift.  Detective Renee Ballard is a good detective with empathy for the victims, no matter who they are, and tenacity to follow leads where others won’t follow… a regular Harry Bosch junior.  But Renee made the mistake of challenging the establishment, the good old boys club, by filing a sexual harassment complaint against one of the department’s up and comers, Lt. Robert Olivas.  Unfortunately, her partner, Officer Kenny Chastain had ambitions of his own in the department and failed to support her claim.  Consequently, Ballard is on the late shift in Hollywood division doing only preliminary investigations with a clock watching partner, Jenkins marking time to his pension.  But Ballard makes the most of her assignment where she can avoid the political B.S. and spend the day living her surf bum bohemian lifestyle.  Her permanent address is Tutu’s, her grandmother’s home an hour and a half north in Ventura but Renee actually lives in a utility van and sleeps in a nylon tent on the beach with her rescue dog, Lola.

One night she catches two cases she wants to work and not just hand off to the day shift.  One is the brutal beating of a transgender prostitute and the other the murder of a drug dealing waitress in a nightclub shooting.  Both these crimes represent the reason she became a cop and fuel her drive to catch the bad guys.  She is assigned a couple of duties which are expected to complete her involvement in the two cases but she can’t let go.  Against orders she spends her off duty time investigating where she’s sure her daytime colleagues will not bother.  Her former partner, Kenny Chastain is assigned to the nightclub murders and is assassinated in his garage as he arrives home from work.  Ballard then gets a hint that the club murders may have involved a cop… not just any cop but her nemesis, Lt. Olivas.  Suddenly, she is being investigated and with no political juice or mentors within the department must tread lightly.  Could this be what ends her career at LAPD or worse what ends her life like her former partner?  She can’t let either of those possibilities keep her from finding the truth.

Michael Connelly has created a new fascinating protagonist in Detective Renee Ballard.  One with the same moral code, disrespect for authority, and tenacity to catch the perpetrator at all costs as his beloved Harry Bosch.  I’m hopeful we’ll see more of Detective Ballard but it begs the question, what does he do with Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter?  Maddie was clearly headed down the path to follow in her Dad’s footsteps but what is her fate now that Ballard fills that spot?  I can’t wait to see.