The Late Show (Renee Ballard Series, #1)

by Michael Connelly

CRIME NEVER SLEEPS.

'CRIME BOOK OF THE YEAR' Daily Mail

ONE OF AMAZON'S BEST MYSTERY/THRILLERS OF THE YEAR

* * * * *

Detective Renée Ballard works 'The Late Show', the notorious graveyard shift at the LAPD.

It's thankless work for a once-promising detective, keeping strange hours in a twilight world of crime.

Some nights are worse than others. And tonight is the worst yet.

Two shocking cases, hours apart: a brutal assault, and a multiple murder with no suspects.

Ballard knows it is always darkest before dawn. But what she doesn't know - yet - is how deep her investigation will take her into the dark heart of her city, the police department and her own past...

The Late Show will keep you up all night: it's time to meet Detective Renée Ballard.

* * * * *

'The new novel from America's greatest living crime writer is a gripping thrill ride that will entrance you and keep you reading until the small hours' Daily Express

'It has been more than ten years since Connelly, one of the world's greatest crime writers, last launched a major new character. Superb storytelling - this cements Connelly's place at the very top of the crime-writing tree' Daily Mail

'Classy and clever, with a tenacious heroine' Sunday Mirror

'Connelly achieves an enormous amount in these pages: he creates a new character who immediately leaps into life; and controls a complex, fast-paced plot full of surprises' Evening Standard

'The Late Show introduces a terrific female character: Detective Renée Ballard. The pacing is breathless ... Ballard has astonishing resourcefulness and bravery - she is complicated and driven' New York Times

'Although the usual Connelly fingerprints are in evidence here - the real achievement is the creation of his tenacious heroine, Ballard' Guardian

'Ballard is significantly more than a Bosch replacement or clone - an absorbing character on her own terms. Connelly has created yet another potentially iconic tarnished knight of those perennially mean streets' Irish Times

'A characteristically complex tale of murder and police corruption' Mail on Sunday (Thriller of the Week)

'First there was Detective Harry Bosch, then Lincoln lawyer Mickey Haller, and now comes Renee Ballard, ace thriller writer Michael Connelly's first new protagonist in 10 years. A nail-bitingly exciting investigation featuring a finely realised new character from one of America's finest contemporary novelists' Irish Independent

• ISBN10: 1409145549
• ISBN13: 9781409145547
• Publish Date: 11 July 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
• Imprint: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[anne]

New version of homelessness.

[empressbrooke]

This was just not Connelly's best version of himself. Everything about it felt like a weak imitation of him. The writing was wobbly, the main character's reasoning for trying to avenge someone who thoroughly betrayed her was unconvincing, and so was the fact that none of her coworkers actually assigned to the case she kept sticking her nose in were able to connect the dots that she did. The end did redeem one complaint I had where I thought that things were going down a super predictable path, but ultimately I hope that the next Renee Ballard outing is stronger than this first one.