Desert Star by Michael Connelly
Harry Bosch and LAPD officer Renée Ballard work together to find the terrible criminal who has killed an entire family and is Bosch’s “white whale.” Renée Ballard, an LAPD detective, left the department a year ago due to sexism, demoralization, and excessive red tape. Ballard takes back her badge, quitting “The Late Show” to reassemble and take charge of the cold case team at the prestigious Robbery-Homicide Division after the head of police himself informs her that she can issue her own tickets within the force.
Desert Star by Michael Connelly
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Harry Bosch has been investigating the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who is still at large for years. Ballard offers Bosch the chance to pursue his “white whale” with the support of the LAPD if he accepts a volunteer position as an investigator in her brand-new Open-Unsolved Unit.
Ballard’s top aim is to solve the unsolved rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl. The councilman who supports re-establishing the unit and who has the power to disband it once more needs to know about the earlier case because the victim was his sister.
The political pressure is at an all-time high when Ballard receives a “cold hit” linking the murder to a related crime, demonstrating that a serial predator has been operating in the city for years. She must dissuade Bosch from his own investigation, the case that completes his lifelong objective, in order to maintain momentum.
To take down not just one, but two dangerous killers who have operated with brazen impunity, the two must set aside their long-standing differences and recent tensions. Michael Connelly once again demonstrates why he has been named “one of the greatest crime writers of all time” in what may be his most compelling and genuinely moving book to date.
Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch has spent the majority of his life looking into crimes in Los Angeles, first as a detective for the LAP and then on his own. He may be physically slower now that he is approaching or just past the age of seventy, but his commitment to justice has not wavered. At the conclusion of The Dark Hours, the first book in this series, Bosch had planned to form a partnership as a private investigator with Detective Renee Ballard, a much younger former coworker who had grown so frustrated with the many shortcomings of the LAPD.
But by the end of that book, she had been persuaded to stay on the force and had been appointed head of a brand-new cold case unit that the department had created at the department’s request of a well-known local politician.
Ballard has enlisted Bosch to assist in this position, along with a small group of colleagues, the majority of whom are also retired from employment in other facets of police enforcement. Ballard has designated one case as a priority since it involves the murder of the sister of the politician who ran advertisements to support the creation of the Unit several years before.
While Bosch is given a number of assignments, he is also eager to concentrate on another case that Ballard has selected from the archives. While still a police officer, Bosch looked into the murder of a complete family. When he discovers that possible new DNA evidence has been found, he is eager to follow the lead. With his usual deftness, Connelly lets the story develop. He was a journalist who covered the criminal beat before turning to write novels. His works, which give the story great clarity and directness, are a clear example of the skills he developed in that career.
