Current Issue #488

Book Review: Dark Sacred Night

Book Review: Dark Sacred Night

Bosch creator Michael Connelly returns to pair the retired sleuth with one of the author’s newer creations, detective Renee Ballard.

In 2017’s The Late Show Connelly introduced a new character into his famous series about the LAPD: the feisty detective Renee Ballard who had been consigned to the nightshift of the Hollywood police department – a graveyard for ambitious detectives.

Here, she discovers Harry Bosch burrowing in a filing cabinet at 3am. Bosch is still a volunteer at the San Diego Police Department but is moonlighting on a cold case of rape and murder. Ballard, a female Harry Bosch in embryo, gets interested and they form an uneasy alliance.

The story is interestingly realistic because it shows the two detectives working various cases on their shifts, as well as their more clandestine cold case off duty. Great news: at the conclusion they plan to continue their unofficial partnership! This is Connelly at his best.

Author: Michael Connelly
Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Allen & Unwin

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