Book Review: Ballard And Bosch Unite

Dark Sacred Night is the crime novel by Michael Connelly which brings together two impressive literary detectives.  Detective Renee Ballard is much newer creation than the old veteran Harry Bosch.  Ballard is a detective on the midnight shift of the Hollywood Division of LAPD, which is also referred to as the Late Show.  She discovers a stranger rifling through old case files.  Harry Bosch is no stranger to the department though.  He has retired under somewhat strenuous circumstances, but he has plenty of unfinished business, and one such bit of that is the unsolved murder of a fifteen year-old runaway named Daisy.

You know, it seems a little strange to bring these two together so soon after Ballard is introduce, however the novel is still quite intriguing.  One of the aspects of this novel that works is that each of them have their own side projects as well, so Ballard and Bosch are not necessarily joined at the hip.

The alliance between these two seems a little fragile at times, but they end up working well together.  Connelly brings a certain authenticity in spite of the characters being completely fictional.

Connelly came up with some interesting cases for Ballard and Bosch to work together and separately.  It was also, as usual , evident that Connelly continues to do some impressive research with Los Angeles Police Department in order to inject some realism into his story.

It’s a solid introduction to what will apparently be an intriguing partnership.  It looks like Connelly intends to avoid a standard mentoring relationship.  Ballard and Bosch may have different backgrounds and styles, however Bosch knows a kindred spirit when he encounters one.  Hopefully, Connelly fans will get several more years of Bosch as well as getting to know Renee Ballard better.

I think the next literary diversion will remain in the realm of unusual and disturbing  murder with Alex Delaware being drawn into the mystery of The Wedding Guest by Jonathan Kellerman.