I thought I would start out the New Year right with a review on a book by one of my favorite authors-Michael Connelly!

There is something about his Bosch series that hits all the right notes of mystery, suspense, police procedural and finding justice that are so satisfying and Connelly is able to do it, time after time, without it getting stale or relying on the usual tropes of the genre.  Additionally, in each book we get to know Bosch and the other characters’ complicated inner landscapes more deeply, making the whole package very satisfying. In Dark Sacred Nights, a relatively new character, Renee’ Ballard, an LAPD detective demoted to the night shift at Hollywood Station, teams up with Bosch to solve a brutal murder.

Renee’ Ballard first meets Bosch rifling through the case files at Hollywood Station when she returns late one night at the end of her shift. After warning him that he is not authorized to be in the file room and asking him to leave, she takes a look at the file he was reading and is intrigued. It is an unsolved murder of a runaway 15 year old girl named Daisy Clayton. Her brutalized body was found in a dumpster, treated in death as if she mattered to no one. Something about the case pulls at Ballard and she contacts Bosch and her superiors and makes arrangements to work on the case when she has time or during her off hours in order to bring the killer to justice.

As they begin working the case Ballard and Bosch form a wary working relationship. Ballard doesn’t appreciate Bosch’s willingness to stretch the limits of the rules, and Bosch is resentful of Ballard’s trust that the rules and system are meaningful and should be followed. As they begin getting closer and closer to solving the case, Ballard and Bosch’s trust in each other and in the system itself will be severely tested as the killer leads them into a dangerous cat and mouse game.

I have yet to be disappointed by one of Connelly’s books and this was no exception. If you have not yet started watching the Bosch series on Amazon you are missing a great TV experience! Enjoy!

Brenda’s Rating: *****(5 out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this Book to: Sharon and Marian

Book Study Worthy? Yes, with other Bosh fans!

Read in ebook format.