The Late Show (Renee Ballard Book 1) by Michael Connelly (Epub)

Description

Renee Ballard works the midnight shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing few, as each morning she turns everything over to the daytime units. It’s a frustrating job for a once up-and-coming detective, but it’s no accident. She’s been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.

But one night Ballard catches two assignments she doesn’t want to part with. First, a prostitute is brutally beaten and left for dead in a parking lot. All signs point to a crime of premeditation, not passion, by someone with big evil on his mind. Then she sees a young waitress breathe her last after being caught up in a nightclub shooting. Though dubbed a peripheral victim, the waitress buys Ballard a way in, and this time she is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her partner’s wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night.

User’s Reviews

Michael Connelly, author of suspense thriller and detective mysteries, has written several #1 New York Times bestsellers and numerous titles that made the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. He has won most every award given in the mystery and thriller genres, including the Anthony Award for Best Novel and the Barry Award for Best Novel. He is a former newspaper reporter who also won numerous awards for his journalism.Katherine Moennig is an audiobook narrator and actress best known for her film roles in Gone, The Lincoln Lawyer, and Everybody’s Fine, among others. –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Review The Late Show introduces a terrific female character: Detective Renee Ballard…The pacing of Ballard’s debut story is breathless…Ballard is complicated and driven enough to sustain the series Connelly doubtless has in mind for her.– “New York Times”A hard-hitting police procedural that captures the imagination from page one.– “RT Book Reviews (4 stars)”Narrator Katherine Moennig’s delivery perfectly complements Ballard’s caginess. Moennig maintains a bit of distance from the listener and rarely engages emotionally, making us all the more curious about what makes Ballard tick. Moennig effectively captures the brusque officialdom of police work…This seamless blend of protagonist and narrator will leave listeners looking for the next installment.– “AudioFile”The most intriguing mystery in The Late Show, though, is Ballard herself. Connelly is too skillful to hand us her resume in one document dump; instead, he fills out her portrait with a subtle hand over the course of the novel, a little background here, a glimpse of her temperament there, the revelation of her unusual living conditions sketched in between.– “Tampa Bay Times”Writing about the instantly appealing police Detective Renee Ballard also recharges Connelly, who has never been in better form.– “Chicago Tribune” –This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ 3.5 stars for this new Michael Connelly novel which introduces another character in his L.A. universe, LAPD Detective Renee Ballard. Clocking in at 405 pages the pace is brisk and filled with the details of police procedure typical of Connelly’s popular ‘Bosch’ series. Renee’s from Hawaii, single, and lives out of a van and sleeps in a tent on the beach with her rescue dog Lola- she’s essentially homeless by choice. She works what’s known as the ‘late show’, the night shift at the LAPD where she was exiled after a failed sexual harrassment complaint against her supervisor. Her greatest frustration is not being able to follow through on cases and having to hand them off in the morning to the day shift detectives. In this novel Renee decides to swim up-stream and pursue two cases; a brutal assault of a transgender prostitute and a multiple homicide nightclub shooting on her own. Overall I found this book engaging but was not all that enchanted with Det. Ballard. She is a loose cannon and she shares Harry Bosch’s iconoclastic anti-authority style. Bucking authority for a junior detective seems like a poor approach if she’s interested in career longevity; Bosch’s been around for decades and “earned” the right to challenge bureaucracy but Ballard has not. Unlike Bosch young Renee is tech saavy and we get a few too many details about what apps she’s using on her i-Phone and how she does internet data searches. Her lifestyle is kind of weird, the sleeping on the beach thing to begin with and she’s apparently an insomniac who almost never sleeps. Why she rescued Lola the dog is a mystery as she’s always dumping her off with the ‘critter-sitter’ and spends little time with her pet- she should consider getting a goldfish. The remaining cast of characters are not well fleshed out and fairly one-dimensional; perhaps Connelly felt he needed to spend the time in establishing Ballard’s identity. The plot is fairly tight and things wrap up reasonably at the conclusion but the motive for the nightclub shooter was unclear to me (maybe I missed it). In summary, this new series from Mr. Connelly has potential and I would read another to see how things develop. I hope Det. Ballard rents an apartment, finds a mentor to help her dial back her attitude a bit, spends more time with her dog, and we get some more depth to the supporting cast.

⭐ I have been reading Harry Bosch novels for years and also enjoy the Amazon series “Bosch.” “Trunk Music” was the first Connelly book I read and have not stopped reading him since. His attention to detail in investigations is authentic, superb and on the level of Ed McBain or Joseph Wambaugh. He cranks out quality writing, but bucks the current trend in churning out books, to readers dissatisfaction, by not partnering with co-writers like some bestselling authors do to meet the demands of their readers.Connelly does his own homework and we are the benefactor.In his latest novel “The Late Show,” Connelly has once again created a memorable a character like Harry Bosch and Mickey Haller with the introduction of Renée Ballard. If you are a fan of strong, well-defined characters in the vein of Patricia Cornwell (Kay Scarpetta) or Sue Grafton (Kinsey Millhone), then Renée Ballard might have you hooked from the start.Renée Ballard does not listen to Jazz like Bosch, she surfs and is a California Girl. She has a partner like Bosch but has to work her way up the ranks beginning at the deplorable midnight shift, hence the book’s title ‘The Late Show.” Like Bosch, she has her character flaws, foibles and demons which makes her relatable. Connelly is best at weaving multiple cases to keep us engaged which is authentic to real life police and detective work. Their days are anything but routine.What I enjoy best about Connelly’s writing, and is consistent in “The Late Show,” is the great Los Angeles geographical descriptions from the streets, freeways, Hollywood and beaches like Venice. I live in L.A. so the visuals come to life on the page. Connelly characters are rebellious and always carry the anti-authority seed of “Dirty Harry.”Ditch your cell phone. Close your office or bedroom door. The Late Show is for late nighters, insomniacs and early risers. Connelly Never Fails to keep us continuously interested in his writing. I look forward to the next one.I hope you found this review helpful.© Michael P.

⭐ When it comes to murder mysteries, Michael Connelly is my go-to author. If he writes it, I read it. So when I received notice that he was beginning a new series, starting with The Late Show, I pre-ordered the book months in advance and read it in a day once it arrived.The Late Show introduces LAPD Detective Renée Ballard. Her star was rising in the Robbery Homicide Division (RHD) until a conflict with a superior officer got her busted down to working the night shift — the eponymous “late show” — in Hollywood. She used to investigate cases from beginning to end. Now, she rolls up on a night crimes and starts the paperwork, turning over the entire case to the day shift.But when two victims — one a prostitute who (barely) survives a vicious beating and the other a waitress killed in a mass shooting event — cross her path the same night, she decides it’s time to follow the cases all the way through. It’s a high stakes gamble professionally, and it exposes her to grave dangers personally, but it’s a gamble she willingly takes.Connelly is releasing his twentieth Harry Bosch novel, Two Kinds of Truth, this October. With Harry having reached retirement age, the Bosch Universe needs a fresh face. Renée Ballard is it, and if The Late Show is any indication, her stories are going to be very, very good.

⭐ Well, if Connelly wrote this, it is storylines only. This is so filled with police “lingo” it’s unbelievable. Drove me crazy. Plus filler on top of that. The character Ballard really isn’t that likable either. And please, a tent on the beach and a dog that is so obedient, but she never spends time with it?!? I don’t get the great reviews. And comparing her to Bosch. What an insult. I’ve read about 95% of his novels, and this is not Connelly. If it really is, then he needs to quit. I just gave it a two star because all in all I love his books. NOT this one. Note to author: write more Mickey books if you want to retire Bosch.

⭐ I love to read and have read many of Michael Connelly’s books which have been action packed,fast moving and reluctant to put down. The Late Show is slow, boring and it took a lot of effort to force myself to keep reading. After 3/4 of the way through I couldn’t take it anymore and downloaded another book.This is the first book that I have not finished in well over 2 years and I read about 1 book a weekI wonder if Michael Connelly really wrote this book . I was very disappointed and feel like I wasted my money

⭐ I’m a big Michael Connelly fan and was waiting for this book to come out. However, it was sadly disappointing. I kept asking myself, “did he really write this one, or is there a ghost writer?” Although I love his other books, I’ve always thought his female characters were shallow. As a prior LA area female law enforcer, I’ve never know women cops like the ones he writes about. Usually I just ignore those parts. So maybe that’s it, just can’t write a book with a female protagonist. However, like other reviewers wrote, this book was boring with too much detail that went nowhere. I couldn’t get through it in spite of the money I invested in it. I even paid extra to purchase it on the Audible Books app because, when I bought it, there was no option to add audible narration at a reduced price. I feel like I got ripped off and wonder if the positive reviews are fake.

⭐ Wow! I just finished this book and loved it. This may be my favorite book of Connelly’s so far. Renee Ballard is a gutsy female protagonist. She never has her “too stupid to live” moments. She’s intense, fearless, driven and smart. She doesn’t brook any foolishness from colleagues or higher ups.She’s a surfer girl with a rescue dog Lola. They surf and sleep on the beach in a tent during the day, and then Ballard goes on the night shift or “the late show” where she was scheduled after she complained about the sexual harassment of a higher up. She works independently a lot, as she doesn’t know who she can trust.A typical night might involve a burglary, an attempted murder and a shooting in a bar. Ballard’s frustration is that on the night shift you rarely investigate these crimes yourself, but turn them over to colleagues who may not be as driven to find the bad guys and protect the innocent. Ballard tries to find her way around that which can get her into trouble.I hope Connelly continues with this character, and Amazon turns it into a show. This was an original and refreshing read. I’m going to recommend it to our library mystery book club for a monthly selection. Now, we only have to wait until October for our next Bosch hit.

⭐ I usually find Connelly’s novels a fun read. They draw me in, keep me engaged. Not so with this one. I found it hard to care about any of the characters in The Late Show and impossible to become involved in the story. What’s more, the book is consistently burdened with painful detail. There are endless descriptions of characters’ every movement step by step, of all the details in detectives’ written reports and with what fingers they type them, about where they choose to sit in the station house and where they place things in their cars, and much more. Sadly, few if any of this deepens our understanding of characters or adds anything to the plot. I almost always complete books I’ve begun, even when they’re less than compelling. I had no trouble setting this one aside, though, after five or six chapters.

⭐ So many cute twists, so many “feminine” takes on “issues”, so much baggage (semi-homeless save for grandmother’s home, surfer, sad dad memories, etc. etc. etc.). And the insider jargon. Wow! But you put it all together and the characters just never seemed alive. There is a distance here not present in Connelly’s other series, and a lack of warmth or just about anything to make us care about her. Really hoped it would be the start of another great series. Yikes.

⭐ This is Michael Connelly’s 30th book. He introduces a new character—a young VERY independent woman raised on Maui in the Hawai’ian Islands. Since Hawai’i is my home I read it with caution. I’ll just say that he doesn’t have a clue about writing about what it means to be Hawai’ian OR a woman.“The Late Show” is the term for the detectives who work the midnight shift so they pick up all sorts of cases…except they then have to turn them over to other task forces…but not this female detective!!SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!!As a woman I am REALLY tired of crime procedurals that put women in harm’s way. Rape, torture and kept locked up..to be raped over and over. Connnelly uses this premise a LOT! As a woman who has dealt with sexual harassment/sexual assault in my life I don’t need to read about women stripped naked and tied to chairs and tortured, then killed. 30 books. And I couldn’t tell you the differences in plots.AND a woman who sleeps in a tent each day by the beach each day?–that would be horrifically hot. I can’t even sleep on my sailboat after the sun comes up. And the danger is just too much. Plus in this day of superbugs (diseases that don’t respond to infection) how can she have casual sex with the lifeguards? Naah–this is crazy.Connelly is a GREAT author..but I’m sick of torture and murder and CRAZY people who love killing people!

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