I really like Connelly but this was not great. A couple of interesting storylines but the writing on this one felt so stilted. I hated how he over explained every single detail. Renee did (some police procedure). Here is a two paragraph explanation of what that means. You don't need to spoon feed us the minutiae of police work. We can probably figure it out. And most of it isn't integral to the story line anyway. My least favorite Connelly to date.

This book was exceptional on so many fronts! Let me save you some time, reader: yes, Harry is in this story, but he is mostly an assistant. It isn't like the previous book in the series where the chapters alternate between the two characters. I didn't mind this near the end of my read. When I was reading, I found myself waiting (somewhat impatiently) for more Bosche, but I realized the story worked well with Ballard as the main character.

Some readers have quipped to either enjoying the political employments put into this book, while others have tossed it as a 1 star as a result. Personally, I found the politics enjoyable for me because it makes this fiction just that much more real for me. I liked getting a taste of how Ballard thinks about Covid and the subtle jabs that Bosche was making about it. I enjoy that because we clearly live in a world where there is that divide about the pandemic and all opinions that circle around it etc. To me, these intertwines made this book even more real.

I found this book fascinating because Connelly keeps finding ways to trudge his characters through the muck. It got me excited for the next book in the series. Although this isn't my favourite Connelly character (I really love Micky Holler), I did enjoy this Ballard sojourn and am excited to dive into Desert Star soon!

3.5 stars

I’m a huge Bosch tv series fan but this my first Michael Connelly read. And, I really enjoyed it. After a few, less than accessible reads, sometimes you just need a book like this to sit down and enjoy, letting a natural storyteller take you along, suspects all disbelief and just wait for the tale to unfold. Spot on summer read and I’ll be back for more!

I got The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly for free for a fair and honest review

At the start of 2021, night shift detective Ballard is sat in a car waiting to hear about the latest attack by two rapists called the midnight men, who generally strike on the holidays.
However, while she is waiting about this she gets a report of a man killed while guns are being fired into the air to celebrate the new year.
However, the previous year 2020 has been one of the hardest, with the pandemic, a disputed general election, and the BLM protests after the murder of George Floyd, mean that the moral of the police is at an all-time low.
So, when the murder leads back to an old case of Harry Bosch, she neds all his help she can get.
This is the first novel by Michael Connelly, that I have read, however with the writer’s style of writing and the narrative of the story I was never at a loss even though this is the 23rd Bosch story and the 4th Ballard one.
Which means I can not comment on how this compares to the previous stories but take it as a standalone.
While I Have read a few novels that have mentioned the events of 2020/21 in passing this is the first novel that the events of that year have formed an integral part of the story.
Which I think really gave the novel a felling of time and had a real effect on the narrative of the story.
As for the two main characters of the novel Bosch and Ballard, with each of these characters being in multiple books, it can feel when as a reader who meets them for the first time.
The writer does one of two things makes them a caricature of what the want them to be, so it does not hinder the reader if this is the first book they have read.
What I feel Michael Connelly did, is write well developed characters, which when you read a book that is not the first of the series you know the depth of the character and at some point, you think you know that they have changed over time.
All this makes The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly a well-rounded novel which I can highly recommend even if this is your first Ballard & Bosch Novel.

Michael Connelly has the crime thriller genre down. But the frequent focus on sexual assault of women is problematic for me, even if the criminal gets their just desserts.

I want to have liked this enough to give it 4 stars but couldn't do it. I have really liked Renee as a character up until this book but found her to be too much in this one. She seemed too determined to piss off everyone she comes in contact with. It's also very misleading for it to say a Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch novel on the cover when this wasn't a Bosch book at all. No chapters from his perspective, no details on what he's up to, etc. which was very disappointing. He felt like an afterthought in this one.

3.75? I'd read a book about Harry Bosch watching paint dry, and while this book includes Harry as a kind of cardboard character, I've now read every book featuring Renee Ballard (I guess that makes 4). And my main complaint is that I never get a sense of her as a three-dimensional character and I still don't, though this book is pretty well plotted and presents a satisfying ending. Michael Connelly says that he'll keep writing long after Bosch stops detecting and Ballard is someone entering center stage, but golly. She's based on a real LA detective, Mitzi Roberts, who I believe is likely amazing, but her amazingness just hasn't come through for me in these books.