2017,  Book Reviews,  Crime,  Detective,  Ebook,  Fiction,  Net Galley

Book Review- The Late Show

Title: The Late Show

Author: Michael Connelly
Published: 18th July 2017
Pages: 400
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Series: Renee Ballard #1


Rating: 3/5 stars

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly, a new thriller introducing a driven young detective trying to prove herself in the LAPD
Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she’s been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.
But one night she catches two cases she doesn’t want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her own partner’s wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the cases entwine they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won’t give up her job no matter what the department throws at her. -Goodreads

My thanks to Net Galley and Orion Publishing Group for the review copy.
This is the first novel in a new detective series featuring Detective Renee Ballard, who works the night shift in the LAPD. I enjoyed reading about a female Detective, and the inherent sexism and casual jibes about being a woman that she had to deal with.  I always enjoy a novel led by a female, especially women in law enforcement, and this was one of the main draws to me reading this novel in the first place.
My main criticism of this novel is the writing itself. It is dull and dry and has absolutely no pace or excitement. At one point the author writes about a kidnapping, and somehow even manages to make that boring and void of any excitement or sense of danger. This lack of excitement and tension in a thriller novel is disappointing and made this novel dry and tiring to read for me. 
I did enjoy the character of Renee a lot, she was cool and kick-ass, and I enjoyed reading about her life and her paddle boarding etc, but this wasn’t enough to keep my interest.
The rest of the characters are bland and under-developed and there is very little to say about any of them. They all lack characteristics or personalities, some fill cliches, and the rest are indistinguishable from each other.
You can tell from reading this novel that Connelly is either knowledgeable about police procedure or he has done a great deal of research, as this novel goes into great detail about the procedures, with many scenes filled with filling out forms and online reports. This would be perfect in a manual or a reference book, but in a thriller like this it felt unnecessary, and it made the novel even drier.
Overall I was disappointed by this novel, I was expecting a very exciting thriller with all the twists, but there are plenty better police thrillers available! 


Thanks for reading!!

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