Tuesday, March 6, 2018

2 By Michael Connelly



Case Of The Night Shift 


Michael Connelly has already created characters like LA cop Harry Bosch and his smart, brash half brother, Mickey Haller, better known as the Lincoln Lawyer (who had a movie made on him, starring Matthew McConaughey). In spite of all these books being bestsellers, the writer felt impelled to introduce a new character, a female one at that.

Detective Renée Ballard is young, smart, tough, and all kinds of terrific. The first book starring her is The Late Show, the police department’s name for the night shift, which nobody really wants to do. She was dumped there when she complained of sexual harassment by a superior and her partner, Ken Chastain, failed to back her up.  She carries this resentment to her new post, with her dull but loyal new partner John Jenkins, who would rather sit in his office and do paperwork than chase after criminals. But Ballard is straining at the leash, because officers on the graveyard shift have to jut write up reports and hand over cases to day cops on the beat. And she is too dedicated to the force to want to be a gloried clerk.

The book is set in Southern California, where homeless Ballard lives on the beach in a tent, paddling when she has the time and hanging out with her dog, Lola.  Ballard grew up in Hawaii, her father drowned, her mother disowned her, so the only living relative is her grandmother, Tutu.

Even though she is not meant to follow up on crimes, Ballard does not let go, whether it is a credit card theft that leads to a bigger scam, or the case of a cross-dresser who has been savagely beaten and left for dead. The same eventful night, there are five people killed in a nightclub shootout. So Ballard puts a lot on her plate in the breathtakingly fast paced book; she is also kidnapped and tortured, but she solves everything.

Connelly won’t let go of a heroine like that after just one book, so readers will definitely get more of Renee Ballard and hopefully she will head a movie franchise too.  Such a kickass female, who can fight as well as she can tongue lash, is made for showbiz.

Interestingly, Mumbai features in the book in credit card call centre sequences, with a man called Irfan Khan, and the coroner is an Indian woman called Jayalaithaa Panneerselvam—now where did Connelly find  names like that!

The Late Show
By Michael Connelly
Publisher: Little, Brown
Pages: 400


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Old Detective, New Tricks

Hieronymus 'Harry' Bosch, the jazz-loving hero of twenty Michael Connelly books, does not retire when he officially retires from the LA police force. He is asked to help with cold cases, and he merrily sets up office in a disused jail cell in the San Fernando Police Department.

His thirty-year career is rocked when he is accused by death row prisoner, Preston Borders, rapist and murderer of three of having framed him back in 1988. Now, new evidence using advanced DNA techniques prove his innocence. If Borders’s lawyer, Lance Cronyn, can prove that, Bosch will be in deep trouble. He finds that even his former partner Lucia Soto is suspicious, though she is willing to do what she can to help him.

While he worries about this, he is also called on to help solve the double murder of a pharmacist José Esquivel Sr. and his son.  These murders are linked to a huge drugs racket, run by an East European syndicate, in which homeless old people are used as mules.  For the first time in his life, Bosch goes undercover to investigate and risks his life.

Bur importantly, he must clear his name and win again the respect of his daughter Maddie.  And who should come charging to help but Mickey Haller, whose investigative skills and courtroom theatrics make for an exciting climax.  This one is easily one of Connelly’s best.

Two Kinds Of Truth
By Michael Connelly
Publisher: Little, Brown
Pages: 400

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