The Dark Hours, by Michael Connelly

The Book

Trigger Warning

    Renee Ballard is back investigating two major cases on The Late Show. He first major case is that of a bunch of serial tag team rapists the department calls the Midnight Men, victimizing women on holidays. There was one at Thanksgiving, one at Christmas, and she knows there will be one New Years Day, 2021. But while waiting to get that dreadful call, Ballard and her temporary partner Lisa Moore get called out to the scene of a shooting. A bullet landed in the back of the head of Javier Raffa, ex Las Palmas Gang member, while he was looking up at the New Year's fireworks. It doesn't take a lot for Ballard to realize, it's murder. And while she's waiting for the horrible call on the Midnight Men case, the one she knows is coming, her old homicide detective juices start to flow for this new case. 

    Moore, burned out from the public reaction to the death of George Floyd and other indignities hurled at her during this first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, is just doing the minimum required. Ballard is frustrated, but she won't let either case go. She works as hard as she can on Raffa's case, and finds out she might get to keep it a few days, RHD (Robbery Homicide Division) has a brutal double murder that has all of their personnel tied up. As Ballard starts to track down leads on Raffa, she catches a break. The bullet casing on the Raffa murder is connected to an OU case that Harry Bosch is the last assigned detective. When Ballard discovers the murder book on that case has disappeared she goes to Bosch for help.

    While Bosch helps her out of his own personal files, Ballard gets the call that the Midnight Men have struck again. Now Ballard, sleeping in a real bed, missing her dog Lola who died of cancer at the beginning of the pandemic, has two cases. But the upgrade to a condo, doesn't help Ballard. And with other officers and detectives afraid to do their job, Ballard is running nearly on empty. Her bosses want her to do the investigation in ways that don't sit well with her. And so, she presses on her own, at whatever cost. Bosch tries to warn her, but will she listen? 

My Thoughts

    Connelly has done a masterful job of weaving the real life frustrations of the police force he covered as a reporter for so into the narrative. To date, very little of what happened IRL makes it more than tangentially into his books. But in this book, set at a particular moment in time, Connelly put me right back there on New Year's 2021. There was so much I had forgotten, even if I did live half a country away from LA. He captured the atmosphere very well indeed. 

    As far as characterizations go, Ballard as a character is showing growth. Slowly, perhaps at the same rate as Bosch. And Bosch is moving slowly and surely more the the background of these books. Bosch in the next book and the Mickey Haller that comes out in a couple of months has Bosch in it as well. But I think we should prepare ourselves for a universe where there will be no Bosch, and soon. If I have my way, Haller and Ballard will have to team up to solve one together. Ah well, one can dream. 

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

    This is a first edition which entered my library on Nov. 15, 2021. This is the first book I've read that my library acquired after I became a trustee in May of 2021. It has definitely been read, several times if the state of the clear cover over the dustjacket is to be believed. But the cover is the only thing about this book that isn't pristine. It was easy to hold hope and did not have any of that new book crackle.

    Now this book is definitely part of my library's collection, and yet I have encountered the strangest thing yet. There is a card tucked in between the dust jacket and the clear cover that says, "This item is on loan from another library. PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THIS CARD. A fee may be charged." Park Ridge Public Library.  Park Ridge is a city about the same size as my library district in the southern part of the Cook County. It's about an hour away. Because the card was left in this book, it tells me that this novel has made the trip all the way there and back again. Very cool. 

    The inside of the dust jacket says the book was $29.00 two years ago.

This Book                               $29.00

This Summer                        $746.83

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