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The Late Show
2022: Other Books
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The Late Show by Michael Connelly - 3 stars
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I liked this book but I loved Blood Work, an earlier Connelly book based on another character.
Glad you liked it too, Charlie. I am not big on reading about murders but Connelly is on our list of WPF so I thought I'd give it a try. This book, I think, was an attempt to appeal introduce a strong female protagonist.
Joy D wrote: "This book, I think, was an attempt to appeal introduce a strong female protagonist. "The other thing is that Harry Bosch is aging and Connelly may be trying to introduce a new character.
I loved his Harry Bosch series, but if you are not a great fan of mysteries or police procedurals it may not be for you anyway.
I like mysteries but not anything too dark. This was good, though. It's nice to have a change of pace every so often.
Set in present-day Los Angeles, Detective Renée Ballard has been exiled to “the late show” (night shift) of the LAPD due to sexual harassment charges she brought against a supervisor. We follow her as she investigates multiple cases – a transexual victim of assault, a credit card theft, and a shooting at a night club.
On the positive side, the author does a great job of establishing Ballard’s backstory. I think Ballard’s personality is believable. It is easy to root for her. This characterization was my favorite part of the book.
On the rather less positive side, Connelly does a great job of telling the reader what happened, but I was more interested in why. There are two instances where motivations remain unclear. There is an uncomfortable scene in the middle, which checks the “thriller” box. I assume these scenes are expected in this genre, but it is something that feels manipulative to me.
This author was selected by one of our group members as a favorite. I had never read Connelly before, and I do not read many crime-detective-police procedurals. I enjoyed it but I doubt I will read further in the series.