The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly
As New Year’s Eve draws to a close, mayhem reigns in Hollywood. While hundreds of revellers fire their weapons into the air, LAPD detective Renée Ballard, who is working her graveyard shift, waits out the customary lead rain. Ballard is summoned just minutes after midnight to a scene where an industrious auto shop owner has been shot and killed in the middle of a busy street celebration.
Ballard rapidly comes to the conclusion that the fatal bullet could not have fallen from the sky and that it is connected to another unsolved homicide, a case that Detective Harry Bosch had previously worked on. Ballard is also on the prowl for the Midnight Men, a devilish duo of serial rapists who terrorize women while disappearing.
The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly
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Ballard is resolutely working to solve both cases, but she sometimes feels like she is running uphill in a police department that has been irrevocably altered by the pandemic and subsequent societal instability. Because of the department’s lack of motivation and inertia, Ballard is forced to turn to Harry Bosch, the one investigator she can trust. But, they must continuously be on the lookout for each other as the two irrepressible investigators collaborate to locate the points where old and new cases collide. The vicious predators they are pursuing are prepared to kill in order to keep their identities a secret.
The two main cases in this book are the serial rape case and the murder of a body shop owner at a New Year’s Eve party (the latter of which involves a case that Bosch has previously worked on). This is a police procedural, but it also delves deeply into what it means to strive to be a good cop in a world where you can’t always rely on your coworkers to act morally and when the public is growing more and more doubtful of the work you’re doing.
Another OUTSTANDING book by Michael Connelly is The Dark Hours. Ballard and Bosch are at it again, but this time Ballard loses control of herself because she is so furious with everyone in the LAPD. She ends up making some really shoddy arrangements as a result, nearly killing herself. Ballard does a great job of carrying on Bosch’s work ethic and outlook on the world. It’s terrific to have a strong female detective in the title role. She maintains her femininity while being incredibly rough.
This narrative contains strong character development, an interesting plot, and a moody environment. Even though their health is failing and they have been retired for several years, Bosch and Ballard are very different people, and their thoughts and viewpoints reflect in part their age differences. While Ballard is at the stage of her life when she begins to wonder if her chosen career is what she wants to do for the rest of her life, and in Ballard’s case, parenting, Bosch cannot give up a lifetime of finding the perpetrators of crime (especially those crimes which remain unsolved).
The storyline is quite compelling. We may enjoy two distinct storylines, each of which has its share of tremendous drama and intensity. Los Angeles serves as the backdrop, and Connelly’s description of the city is unflinching; we see both LA’s bright sides and its seedier side.
