South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
LAPD detective duo evolve in Connelly’s outstanding 36th novel
Michael Connelly re-energizes the police procedural in the Harry Bosch series as evident in the outstanding “The Dark Hours,” his 36th novel. Through the Harry novels, Connelly has tackled contemporary police investigations, smoothly delving into issues, such as racism and corruption, that affect cops, citizens and crime detection.
Solving crime always has been Harry’s mission, and his mantra “everybody counts or nobody counts” continues even after his retirement from the LAPD. Harry has a kindred spirit in Det. Renée Ballard, making her fourth partnership with Harry and further showing that she is a much needed force. In “The Dark Hours,” Renée shows her mettle, insight and willingness to put aside her ego to learn from Harry’s vast experience. She’s not at Harry’s level yet — but she is honing her skills.
“The Dark Hours” opens with Renée and another partner du jour parked under an overpass near a homeless shelter on New Year’s Eve 2020, waiting for “the annual rain of lead” — that ritual during which people fire their guns to celebrate the new year.
“It had been a bad year with the pandemic and social unrest and violence,” thinks Renée, who has found during the last four years that this spot is the safest when the shooting begins. Renée also is waiting for a report of the Midnight Men, a pair of serial rapists who have been striking around the holidays without leaving any forensic evidence.
Renée is then called to the first murder of the year — the shooting of Javier Raffa, a former gang member who bought his way out of that life to become a devoted family
man and owner of a body shop. A bullet recovered from the scene is linked to the decade-old unsolved murder of a rapper who’d set up a studio to rent to other musicians, a case that Harry had handled.
Renée works the late, late shift — “the dark hours” — and is supposed to hand the Raffa shooting to a homicide unit, but because that squad is overextended she offers to work the case on her own time. Logically, she turns to Harry, who knows more about solving crimes than almost anyone. Although officially retired from the force, Harry will never retire from solving crimes. Renée finds Harry poring over copies of cold cases stacked on his kitchen table; he’s also built a room under his carport to store copies of other case files. Renée and Harry link their cases to silent partners each dead man had, while she still looks into the Midnight Men.
“The Dark Hours” continues Connelly’s character study of Harry, chronicling his persona since he was introduced in “The
Black Echo” (1992). Harry remains an old-school detective who uses his insight and believes that pouring over case file must be augmented by going to the scene of the crime.
While Harry believes in the tradition of police work, he’s also open to new ideas and is forever learning, which makes him the perfect partner for Renée. Speaking of new ideas, “The Dark Hours” finds Harry listening to a favorite jazz rendition updated by John Legend and the Roots.
Connelly’s affinity for creating strong, realistic women characters shines in Renée. She believes in Harry, respects him and considers him her mentor, but she also is her own person, willing to go out on a limb for an investigation, sometimes putting herself in harm. She learns with each case, and, like Harry, can make mistakes. Both are loners, but both also willing to open up to another person. Connelly wisely doesn’t make their platonic partnership always smooth, but quite realistic.
As much as “The Dark Hours” is about Harry and Renée, the story also is about the changes in police work, how racial justice protests, the Jan. 6 insurrection and the pandemic have affected police officers, decimating morale and questioning their career choices.
Each officer — good and bad — has been vilified, many have lost their empathy for crime victims, which Renée recognizes as “a self-protective measure.” She knows that “police work could easily hollow you out.”
But she hopes that never happens to her, believing “losing one’s empathy was losing one’s soul.” Still, even Renée wonders if she should become a private detective: “It was a hard lesson, and a sense of futility had set upon her and was deep in the marrow now.” Connelly explores these issues without taking sides.
Connelly has successfully delivered a generational shift since he first introduced Renée with “The Late Show” in 2017, illustrating a change while keeping Harry vital and important.
We’ve said before that Connelly is the most consistently superior living crime fiction author.
“The Dark Hours’ just reinforces that.
Oline H. Cogdill can be reached at olinecog@aol. com.
Meet the author
Michael Connelly (“The Dark Hours”) will be in conversation with Laura Lippman (“Dream Girl”) as part of the Miami Book Fair beginning online at noon Nov. 15. For details, visit miamibookfair.com/ programs; look for Miami Book Fair Online.
Connelly will be the guest speaker during the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County’s 30th annual Love of Literacy Luncheon beginning at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 16 at the Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. The luncheon supports programs that provide literacy skills to children, adults and families. Individual tickets for the luncheon are sold out. Tickets for the online event are $35. For more information or to register, visit LiteracyPBC.org, or call 561-279-9103.