BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
PRINT: COPYRIGHT: November 8, 2022; PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company; ISBN: 978-0316485654; LENGTH: 400 pages; UNABRIDGED:
***AUDIO: COPYRIGHT: November 8, 2022; PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company; LENGTH: 9 hours, 37 minutes; UNABRIDGED:
FILM: No

SERIES: A Harry Bosch Novel, Book 24, A Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Novel, Book 5

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Renée Ballard – Los Angeles Police Detective running Unsolved Homicide Cases.
Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch – Volunteer for the Cold Cases Division of the LAPD
Finbar McShane – An old suspect from a case Harry hadn’t solved.
Jake Pearlman – A councilman whose sister was murdered in 2011
Sarah Pearlman – Jake Pearlman’s sister who’d been killed.
Gallagher family – A family of four who were killed – an open unsolved murder
Thomas Laffont – Volunteer in the Open Unsolved murders division of LAPD—former FBI
Lilia Aghzafi - Former Las Vegas Metro detective volunteering under Detective Ballard.
Paul Masser – Volunteer under Ballard
Colleen Hatteras – Genealogical Research specialist
Lou (Ted) Rawls – Former Santa Monica Detective – volunteer under Ballard
Nelson Hastings - Councilman Pearlman’s chief of staff

AUTHOR: Michael Connelly (7/21/56), A fabulous detective novelist who was formerly a journalist.

NARRATOR(S): Titus Welliver:
From Wikipedia__ “(born March 12, 1962) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayals of the Man in Black in Lost, Silas Adams in Deadwood, Jimmy O’Phelan in Sons of Anarchy, and the title role in the television series Bosch and Bosch: Legacy. He is also known for his starring roles in the films Gone Baby Gone (2007) and The Town (2010).”
Christine Lakin:
From Wikipedia__ “(born January 24, 1979) is an American actress and director. She is best known for her role as Alicia "Al" Lambert on the 1990s ABC/CBS sitcom Step by Step. She also played Joan of Arc on Showtime's Reefer Madness, was the sidekick on Craig Kilborn's 2010 Fox talk show The Kilborn File, and provides the voice of Joyce Kinney in Family Guy.”
Peter Giles:
From IMDb__ “Peter Giles was born on 15 February 1971 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is an actor, known for The Life & Times of Tim (2008), Into the Dark (2018) and Portlandia (2011).”

GENRE: Mystery Thriller

DEDICATION: “In memory of Philip Spitzer who believed in Harry Bosch”

LOCATIONS: Los Angeles; Key West

TIME: Present day

SUBJECTS: Police procedure; detectives; cold cases; politics; DNA;

EVALUATION / SUMMARY: Why I picked it: I waited all year for this next one in the series.
What it was about: I don’t want to give anything away—but Goodreads will tell you.
What I thought: Worth the wait.

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1
"“If you want it, it’s a done deal,” Ballard said. “I already cleared it before I came here. It’s a different captain now and different people. I have to be honest, Harry, not a lot of people there know about you. You been gone, what, five years? Six? It’s a different department.”

“They remember me up on ten, I bet.”

The tenth floor of the Police Administration Building was where the Office of the Chief of Police and most of the department’s commanders were located.

“Well, guess what, we don’t even work out of the PAB,” Ballard said. “We’re out in Westchester at the new homicide archive. Takes a lot of the politics and prying eyes out of it.”

That intrigued Bosch.

“Six books,” he said, musing out loud.

“Stacked on an empty desk with your name on it,” Ballard said.

Bosch had taken copies of many documents from the case with him when he retired. The chrono and all the reports he thought were most important. He had worked the case intermittently since his retirement but had to acknowledge he had gotten nowhere with it, and Finbar McShane was still out there somewhere and living free. Bosch had never found any solid evidence against him but he knew in his gut and in his soul that he was the one. He was guilty. Ballard’s offer was tempting.

“So I come back and work the Gallagher Family case?” he said.

“Well, you work it, yeah,” Ballard said. “But I need you to work other cases, too.”

“There’s always a catch.”

“I need to show results. Show them how wrong they were to disband the unit. The Gallagher case is going to take some work—six books to review, no DNA or fingerprint evidence that is known. It’s a shoe-leather case, and I’m fine with that, but I need to clear some cases to justify the unit and keep it going so you can work a six-book case. Will that be a problem?”

Bosch didn’t answer at first. He thought about how a year earlier, Ballard had pulled the rug out on him. She had quit the department in frustration with the politics and bureaucracy, the misogyny, everything, and they had agreed to make a partnership and go private together. Then she told him she was going back, lured by a promise from the chief of police to allow her to pick her spot. She chose the Robbery-Homicide Division downtown and that was the end of the planned partnership.

“You know, I had started looking for offices,” he said. “There was a nice two-room suite in a building behind the Hollywood Athletic Club.”

“Harry, look,” Ballard said. “I’ve apologized for how I handled that but you get part of the blame.”

“Me? That’s bullshit.”

“No, you were the one who first told me you can better effect change in an organization from the inside than from the outside. And that’s what I decided. So blame me if it makes you happy, but I actually did what you told me to do.”"

RATING: 5

STARTED - FINISHED 12/2/2022 12/18/2022 ( )

Harry is pushing 70 now and from his exposure to radiation in "The Overlook" he has developed leukemia and so it is no wonder that at the start of Desert Star Harry is comtemplating his own swift demise, he has all the pills he might need lined up in a row, in front of him.....but a ringing doorbell and an offer from Renee Ballard sees Harry (at least temporarily) out chasing the historical bad guys.....the ones that got away. Every detective will have a list of the unsolved, cases that will always haunt them, cases that they were never able to solve and bring some form of peace to the families. The Gallagher family mum, dad and two children were brutally murdered and buried somewhere in the desert, Harry tells Renee that if he comes back to work the unsolved cases then he must have some personal time to find the killer of this family.....bringing some lasting peace not only to them but to one old tired ex detective.. In return Harry agrees to help Renee find a serial killer who operates years apart, and is much closer than either realize

I have always loved the writing of Michael Connelly and in particular the wonderful character that is Harry Bosch. His precarious house overlooking the city of angels, his love of jazz (always has me searching spotify :) and the relationship he enjoys with daughter Maddie. I enjoy the way Connelly stops and makes me think when he periodically reveals the philosopher in Harry....."He knew that almost everybody believed in something, holding a hope that there wasn't just an empty void at the end"......"Bosch turned off the screen and sat there thinking about how the truth was always manipulated by those in power"......
A wonderful story with a great antihero, he may be old but he still has the heart of a lion and hopefully his health will improve to bring a few remaining adventures to his adoring fans! ( )

Many years ago I made a few predictions on where I thought this series was going to go. While the journey has been a surprise I was pretty close on the destination.

On a side note I can’t help but think Ian Rankin and Michael Connelly planned this together. We should probably keep them separated. They are dangerous. ( )

Renee Ballard, now heading a cold case unit, enlists Harry Bosch as one of her department people. Working as a volunteer, Bosch still has his own methods, and his investigating skills, while quite effective, sometimes crosses the line. Ballard has her own ideas of what she wants Bosch to do, and he sometimes has other ideas. As usual, he puts his life on the line, but he generally gets what he wants. They are looking to solve the murder of a teenage girl by tying it to other cold cases. Meanwhile, Bosch still wants to solve the cold-blooded murder of an entire family. He gets what he wants but at a cost. The book leaves readers wondering what is next for Bosch in the future. As with the other novels in the series, this well-written tale is packed with action, suspense, and surprises. The audio version was very well performed by narrators Titus Welliver, Christine Lakin, and Peter Giles, and their rendition adds much enjoyment to the story. ( )

Well written and performed. Plenty action, mystery, twists, and suspense. Recommended.

FROM AMAZON: LAPD detective Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to hunt the brutal killer who is Bosch’s “white whale”—a man responsible for the murder of an entire family.

A year has passed since LAPD detective Renée Ballard quit the force in the face of misogyny, demoralization, and endless red tape. But after the chief of police himself tells her she can write her own ticket within the department, Ballard takes back her badge, leaving “the Late Show” to rebuild and lead the cold case unit at the elite Robbery-Homicide Division.

For years, Harry Bosch has been working a case that haunts him—the murder of an entire family by a psychopath who still walks free. Ballard makes Bosch an offer: come volunteer as an investigator in her new Open-Unsolved Unit, and he can pursue his “white whale” with the resources of the LAPD behind him.

First priority for Ballard is to clear the unsolved rape and murder of a sixteen-year-old girl. The decades-old case is essential to the councilman who supported re-forming the unit, and who could shutter it again—the victim was his sister. When Ballard gets a “cold hit” connecting the killing to a similar crime, proving that a serial predator has been at work in the city for years, the political pressure has never been higher. To keep momentum going, she has to pull Bosch off his own investigation, the case that is the consummation of his lifelong mission.

The two must put aside old resentments and new tensions to run to ground not one but two dangerous killers who have operated with brash impunity. In what may be his most gripping and profoundly moving book yet, Michael Connelly shows once again why he has been dubbed “one of the greatest crime writers of all time” (Ryan Steck, Crimereads). ( )