Evening Standard's journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Meet Renée Ballard, a 34-year-old detective from Hawaii who, having failed to nail a former boss for sexual harassment, has been banished to “the late show” — the 11pm-7am shift in Hollywood. Our first tour with her involves three cases: a series of robberies, the horrific abduction and torture of a transgender prostitute and a mass shooting in a nightclub. Of course all the villains — in and outside the LAPD — are men.
Renée, known as “Balls” during training at the police academy, gives as good as she gets in the face of condescension and unreconstructed masculinity. Paddle-boarding has given her a fabulous figure, although her charms are nearly the death of her when she attracts the attentions of a muscle-bound suspect.
She is a woman in peril — mainly from herself. Like Harry Bosch, Connelly’s long-running hero, she is aware of “the darkness within” and “the bleakest side of the soul”.
Connelly achieves an enormous amount in these 400 pages: he creates a new character who immediately leaps into life; controls a complex, fast-paced plot full of surprises; and continues to enhance his career-long portrait of modern LA. Like most men I’d like to see Ballard again — and soon.
£9.50, Amazon, Buy it now
MORE ABOUT