82. The Waiting by Michael Connelly

Ballard & Bosch #6

listened on Audible (purchased)

407 pgs.

2024
Adult Mystery
Finished 12/8/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.47
My rating: 5
Setting: LA and vicinity, contemporary

My comments: The Cold Case Unit in LA, headed by Renee Ballard - Connelly spent the 6th in the series about this LA police detective working on three major cases.  They're all intricate and edge-of-your-seat fascinating.  Renee and Harry have become very close friends, having similar thoughts, feeling, and reactions to many things.  What was wonderfully great for me sas that Maddie Bosch is part of this book! (Why is her relationship with her father so strained? and almost secretive?)  This was a really good one!

Goodreads synopsis:  LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold, with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter.

Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen—a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch.

Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch’s daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls.

111. The Dark Hours - Michael Connelly

#4 Renee Ballard/#23 Harry Bosch

listened on Audible

2021
400 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 12/10/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.51
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary LA

My comments: Two mysteries keep Renee Ballard busy with the help of Harry Bosch.  Both are super intuitive and puzzle solvers.  One of the cases is about a bad cop, now retired, who is a hitman of sorts; and the other is about two guys who are serial rapists.  Renee even gets a teeny tiny bit of a love interest in this one, and an apartment!  It was so excellent!

Goodreads synopsis:   Has a killer lain dormant for years only to strike again on New Year’s Eve? LAPD Detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to find justice for an innocent victim in the new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly

There's chaos in Hollywood on New Year's Eve. Working her graveyard shift, LAPD Detective Renée Ballard seeks shelter at the end of the countdown to wait out the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revelers shoot their guns into the air. As reports start to roll in of shattered windshields and other damage, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party.

It doesn't take long for Ballard to determine that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky. Ballard’s investigation leads her to look into another unsolved murder—a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch.

Ballard and Bosch team up once again to find out where the old and new cases intersect. All the while they must look over their shoulders. The killer who has stayed undetected for so long knows they are coming after him

18. The Night Fire by Michael Connelly

#3 Renee Ballard & Harry Bosch
Listened to Audible
narrated by Titus Welliver and Christine Lakin
Unabridged audio (10:04)
2019 Little Brown & Co.
405 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 1/26/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.35 - 18,962 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary LA

First line/s:  "Bosch arrived late and had to park on a cemetery lane far from the grave site."

My comments:  This was an intricately woven series of mysteries stemming from a cold case that Harry Bosch had received from his deceased mentor, and an arson case that Renee Ballard covered on her night shift, as well as some investigative work that Harry completed for his half-brother, Mickey Haller.  Complex but easy to follow, the working relationship and almost affection they have for each other is palpable.  I hate that Harry is pushing 70, but I adore him just as much as I always have.  I love the back-and-forth chapters hearing the voices of both of them.

Goodreads synopsis:  Harry Bosch and LAPD Detective Renee Ballard come together again on the murder case that obsessed Bosch's mentor, the man who trained him -- new from #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly
          Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case. Now that mentor, John Jack Thompson, is dead, but after his funeral his widow hands Bosch a murder book that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD 20 years before -- the unsolved killing of a troubled young man in an alley used for drug deals.
          Bosch brings the murder book to Renée Ballard and asks her to help him find what about the case lit Thompson's fire all those years ago. That will be their starting point.
          The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigation team. And they soon arrive at a worrying question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement, or to make sure it never got solved?

109. Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly

#2 Renne Ballard/#21 Harry Bosch
istened on Audible, borrowed from Bosler eAudio
narrated  by Christine Lakin & Titus Welliver
Unabridged audio (10:39)
2018 Little Brown
400 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 11/7/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.20 - 31,524 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary LA

First line/s: "The patrol officers had left the front door open. They thought they were doing her a favor, airing the place out.  But that was a violation of crime scene protocol regarding evidence containment.  Bugs could go in and out.  Touch DNA could be disturbed by a breeze through the house.  odors were particulate.  Airing out a crime scene meant losing part of that crime scene."

My comments:  In this episode, Renee and Harry work together on a nine-year-old cold case, Renee from the inside of the police department, and Harry from the outside.  They complement each other in guts and smarts and as the book ends we discover they have decided to continue working together in this way.  I liked it.  Look forward to more.

Goodreads synopsis:  LAPD Detective Renée Ballard teams up with Harry Bosch in the new thriller from #1 NYT bestselling author Michael Connelly.
          Renée Ballard is working the night beat again, and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours only to find a stranger rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is retired detective Harry Bosch, working a cold case that has gotten under his skin. Ballard kicks him out, but then checks into the case herself and it brings a deep tug of empathy and anger.
          Bosch is investigating the death of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway on the streets of Hollywood who was brutally murdered and her body left in a dumpster like so much trash. Now, Ballard joins forces with Bosch to find out what happened to Daisy and finally bring her killer to justice.

20. The Closers - Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch #11

Audio read by Len Carriou

10 Unabridged cds

2005 Hachette Audio

432 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 3/8/2015

Goodreads rating:  4.00

My rating:  5

My comments:  Harry Bosch returns to the LAPD and is partnered with one of his previous partners, Kiz Rider. The beginning of the story seemed to drag a bit - there was no action because the facts of a 17-year old cold case were being disclosed to Harry and Kiz.  But as they begin to dig into old facts and look into new clues, the story becomes more-than-interesting, with a few twists and turns and a great deal to think about.  Michael Connelly sure seems to know the ins and outs and dirty laundry of a big city police department!

Goodreads book summary:  He walked away from the job three years ago. But Harry Bosch cannot resist the call to join the elite Open/Unsolved Unit. His mission: solve murders whose investigations were flawed, stalled, or abandoned to L.A.'s tides of crime. With some people openly rooting for his failure, Harry catches the case of a teenager dragged off to her death on Oat Mountain, and traces the DNA on the murder weapon to a small-time criminal. But something bigger and darker beckons, and Harry must battle to fit all the pieces together. Shaking cages and rattling ghosts, he will push the rules to the limit--and expose the kind of truth that shatters lives, ends careers, and keeps the dead whispering in the night...

44. The Narrows - Michael Connelly

#10 Harry Bosch

Audio read by Len Cariou
9 unabridged cds (10:00)

2004 Time Warner Audio Books

427 pgs.

Adult Murder Mystery

Finished 7/25/2014

Goodreads Rating:  4.01

My Rating:  3/ It was okay

Amelia Given Library,, Mt. Holly Springs

Setting: Contemporary LA & Las Vegas

1^st sentence/s:  "I think maybe I know only one thing in this world. One thing for sure.  And that is that the truth does not set you free."

My comments:  I read this without reading The Poet first, but have read every other Harry Bosch, in order.  I could figure out what was going on with this "past case" very quickly, but will admit that it would have been nice to have read The Poet first, thus having all the background.  I love the character of Harry Bosch.  I've loved every one of the books so far, but this one was a little (tiny, tiny) bit disappointing --- and I'm not sure why.  Perhaps I've read the previous books and listened to this one, which made it different? It brings together THREE different books, including Terry McCaleb and bounces back and forth between points-of-view, not just Harry's?

Nice Harry Bosch quote:  "There is nothing like being wanted or being welcomed, being valued."

Goodreads Review:  FBI agent Rachel Walling finally gets the call she's dreaded for years, the one that tells her the Poet has surfaced. She has never forgotten the serial killer who wove lines of poetry in his hideous crimes--and apparently he has not forgotten her.
Former LAPD detective Harry Bosch gets a call, too--from the widow of an old friend. Her husband's death seems natural, but his ties to the hunt for the Poet make Bosch dig deep. Arriving at a derelict spot in the California desert where the feds are unearthing bodies, Bosch joins forces with Rachel. Now the two are at odds with the FBI...and squarely in the path of the Poet, who will lead them on a wicked ride out of the heat, through the narrows of evil, and into a darkness all his own..

36. Lost Light - Michael Connelly

#9 Harry Bosch
audio read by Len Cariou

Listened on my iPhone through Overdrive/TPPL download

9 discs/parts

2004

416 pgs.

Finished 6/11/14 in my cozy PA apartment

Adult murder mystery

Goodreads Rating: 4.09

My Rating: 4.5 Loved it

Acquired: TPPL Overdrive Audio

Setting: LA and Vegas

1^st sentence/s:  "There is no end of things in the heart.  Somebody once told me that."

My comments: Harry Bosch #9 did not disappoint.  This time he's no longer on the LAPD homicide squad, he's out on his own.  Although Virgil Flowers has overtaken Harry as my favorite protagonist, I'm still a total Harry Bosch fan.  I've got the next one on reserve!

Goodreads Review:  The vision has haunted him for four years--a young woman lying crumpled in death, her hand outstretched in silent supplication. Harry Bosch was taken off the Angella Benton murder case when the production assistant's death was linked with the violent theft of two million dollars from a movie set. Both files were never closed. Now retired from the L.A.P.D., Bosch is determined to find justice for Angella. Without a badge to open doors and strike fear into the guilty, he's on his own. And even in the face of an opponent more powerful and ruthless than any he's ever encountered, Bosch is not backing down.

56. City of Bones - Michael Connelly

#8 Harry Bosch

Listened to using OverDrive on my phone, borrowed from the library

2002

408 pgs.

Adult series murder mystery

Finished 

Goodreads Rating: 3.95 (over 14,000 ratings)

My Rating: 4.5 (it was really, really good)

Setting: Contemporary LA

My comments: 4.5 This is the second CITY OF BONES titled book I've ready recently - very different from the first.  I haven't read a Harry Bosch in quite awhile, so it was a real treat.  To listen to the story on the monotonous trip from Mount Holly Springs to Trenton made the trip fly by.  The stories and characters - both good and bad - were intriguing.  The reader was great, but the added musical accompaniment drove me crazy. Yuck.  And the ending!  SPOILER-SPOILER - Harry gets the chance to return to his previous, more prestigious job...and he quits the force completely!  Now I can't wait to read the next installment.

Goodreads:  Detective Harry Bosch tears open a 20-year-old murder case - with an explosive ending that leave all Bosch fans hungrily awaiting the next instalment.

When the bones of a twelve-year-old boy are found scattered in the Hollywood Hills, Harry Bosch is drawn into a case that brings up the darkest memories from his own haunted past. The bones have been buried for years, but the cold case doesn't deter Bosch. Unearthing hidden stories, he finds the child's identity and reconstructs his fractured life, determined that he not be forgotten.

At the same time, a new love affair with a female cop begins to blossom for Bosch - until a stunningly blown mission leaves him in more trouble than ever before in his turbulent career. The investigation races to a shocking conclusion and leaves Bosch on the brink of an unimaginable decision.