Publisher's Weekly Review
The title of this excellent series launch from bestseller Connelly (The Wrong Side of Goodbye and 20 other Harry Bosch novels) refers to the midnight shift at LAPD's Hollywood Division. Det. Renée Ballard has landed there in retribution for filing sexual harassment charges against her former boss, Lt. Robert Olivas. Two major crimes soon concern Ballard: the vicious beating of a woman, who says she was assaulted in the "upside-down house" but passes out before she can explain, and a nightclub shooting that kills five people. Though most "late show" cops hand off cases to their day shift counterparts, Ballard personally investigates the assault (with official approval) and the nightclub shooting (without). Olivas, who's leading the latter investigation, wants her nowhere near the case. What follows is classic Connelly: a master class of LAPD internal politics and culture, good old-fashioned detective work, and state-of-the-art forensic science-plus a protagonist who's smart, relentless, and reflective. Talking about the perpetrator of the assault, Ballard says, "This is big evil out there." That's Connelly's great theme, and, once again, he delivers. Agent: Philip Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
LAPD officer Renée Ballard was relegated to the "late show," the midnight to 8 a.m. street patrol, after her allegation of sexual harassment against her supervisor Lieutenant Olivas was dismissed. On duty one night, she and her partner respond to a robbery and are directed to two crime scenes: the brutal beating of a transgender prostitute and a multiple shooting. Rather than pass off the robbery to the detective squad, Ballard volunteers to investigate. She also probes the other incidents on the sly-in the case of the shooting, against Olivas's direct order. Her intuition tells her the shooter was a police officer, namely her boss. This new police procedural series' lackluster entry by the creator of the Harry Bosch series (The Wrong Side of Goodbye) pits the driven Ballard against an increasingly hostile Olivas. While the action builds in the second half, it is halfhearted, and the quick and tidy solutions to the robbery and beating are anticlimactic. An early reference to Bosch is gratuitous. Verdict Fans will clamor for Connelly's new protagonist, who is a female Bosch, caring and driven to finding the truth at all costs, but she will need more grit to survive.-Edward Goldberg, Syosset P.L., NY © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.