The Waiting – Michael Connelly

When a petty thief steals Ballard’s badge and gun from her van while she’s surfing, she turns to her friend Harry Bosch to help her get them back.  When the trail leads them to a group of domestic terrorists who plan to shoot up Santa Monica pier on a busy holiday weekend, they turn to the FBI for help, but the blowback puts Ballard in hot water with her captain.  Meanwhile, a recent arrest collected DNA that puts Ballard’s Open-Unsolved Unit on the track of a serial rapist from 20 years earlier and Bosch’s daughter joins the team with a hot lead, the identity of the Black Dahlia’s killer.

The sixth, and, to date, final entry of Michael Connelly’s Renée Ballard series, The Waiting continues with the changes introduced in the last book that helped to land the Ballard series on Amazon Prime.  Bosch plays a lesser role in this go around, though his daughter joins the team to help pick up some of the slack.  I’m not sure if this is the end of the road or, having just been released in 2024, I’ve just caught up to the current release cycle, but I hope there is more to come.  If not, I may be forced to go backwards and start the Bosch series at the beginning.