Michael Connelly’s
2024 Ballard and Bosch novel is titled THE WAITING. I’m still waiting for a
somewhat better book. The jacket keeps trumpeting that this is “his best ever,”
but I think it needed another trip to the editor.
Renee Ballard was introduced to keep this long-running
series from going belly up after the retirement of Harry Bosch. She is now the
head of a Los Angeles cold case unit, and her team is working on a long-dormant
case dubbed the “Pillowcase Murders.” Before we can get a real handle on that
one, Renee’s gun and badge are stolen while she is surfing. Feeling her career
would be over if she reports this embarrassing theft, she sets out to find the perp
without telling her superiors. When that search starts looking like more than
simple larceny, she goes to old friend Harry Bosch and ultimately the FBI as the simple case explodes into potential terrorist violence leaving both Harry and Renee exposed to both danger and political blowback.
Ballard then convinces her Captain to allow Harry Bosch’s daughter to join her cold case team. Maddie Bosch conveniently wants to be a detective but is now only a young patrolwoman. She also shows an ulterior motive when she uses the cold case files to solve the long-standing real-life “Black Dalhia” murders case. High-level political chicanery, unfortunately, keeps the current DA from pursuing her ideas.
More twists and turns arrive with Ballard, once again not following strict police procedure as she goes on her own to nail the “Pillowcase” murder suspect. At the end, all the plots seem a bit too strained, particularly the bit about the safety of Ballard’s mother in the huge fires on Maui. The connection here seemed more of a tease for the next book.
The taut police lingo and suspenseful chapter closings are
still there, but this is not top-form Connelly.
I give it a 3 out of 5.
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