Tag / Michael Connelly

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Book 6 (of 52) – The Dark Hours

The Dark Hours – Michael Connelly

2020 has been a dark year for the LAPD, as Covid and the public’s waning trust in the police have affected morale.  As midnight strikes to close out the year. Detective Renée Ballard is out on patrol, waiting for the latest attack from the Midnight Men, a duo who use the excitement of a holiday as a cover to rape an unsuspecting woman.  While waiting, she gets called to a murder scene, a former banger who bought his way out years ago.  Working both cases solo, with help from former detective Harry Bosch, she finds the only thing bigger than her desire to close the cases is her desire to leave the department, and its bullshit, behind.

In the fourth entry of his Renée Ballard series, The Dark Hours, Michael Connelly continues to team her up with his old Harry Bosch character, first introduced in 1992’s The Black Echo.  The two seem likely to continue working together, so I imagine any future entries in the series (of which there are currently two more) will continue the pairing.  The next entry, Desert Star, is the basis for the first season of the Ballard series on Amazon Prime, which I am two episodes into as of this writing.  Hopefully that isn’t a mistake on my part.

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Book 52 (of 52) – The Night Fire

The Night Fire – Michael Connelly

When Bosch’s old partner dies leaving behind an old, “borrowed” murder book, he brings it to Detective Renée Ballard for them to work together.  While investigating the case, Ballard and Bosch learn that two other cases they are working independently of each other may be connected.  Can they close the three cases, involving gangs, the mob, and a crooked law firm, while keeping their sources, and themselves, out of harm’s way?

In the third entry of his Renée Ballard series, The Night Fire, Michael Connelly continues to team her up with his old Harry Bosch character, first introduced in 1992’s The Black Echo.  The two seem likely to continue working together, so I imagine any future entries in the series (of which there are currently three more) will continue the pairing.

For the fourth straight year, I have completed my goal-reaching 52nd book.  Given that I am a month ahead of last year’s pace, I should be able to give my personal record of 61 books, set last year, a run for its money.

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Prolific Authors – Two Books

It is time once again to take a look at the authors I have read the most, dating back to high school.  This year, I’m once again on pace to set a new record for books read in a year, so I thought it would be nice to take a deeper dive into those books I’ve read through August of this year. Since our last check-in, I’ve read an additional 114 books, so there should be some movement over the past two years.  Without further ado, it’s time to take another look and see if my “favorite” authors have changed much over the years.  We begin today with the 40 authors I’ve read two times, one fewer than two years ago.

Laura Caldwell

I have no idea how I came across the work of this local author, but I must have enjoyed it enough to go back for seconds.  Unfortunately, she passed away in 2020, leaving behind a back catalog of fourteen novels and two non-fiction books.

Michael Chabon

Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, the most recent of the two works of his I’ve read.  I have another, Wonder Boys, waiting in the to read pile, so he rise up some day.

Matthew V. Clemens

The co-author, with Max Allan Collins, of the final two chapters of the Reeder and Rogers trilogy.

Ready Player Two – Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline

The man responsible for both Ready Player One and Ready Player Two.

Bill Clinton

The former president has co-written two novels with James Patterson.

Michael Connelly

The creator of Harry Bosch makes his first appearance thanks to his Renée Ballard spin-off series.

Laura Dave

I read my second novel from her, The Night We Lost Him, earlier this year.

Felicia Day

The first author here that I’ve happened to meet in person.

Cameron Dokey

She makes the list based on two entries in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

Warren Ellis

The comic writer, currently in exile after being called out for abusing women, makes the list thanks to two prose novels.

David Fisher Continue reading →

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2024: The Year In Books

As 2024 comes to a close, my fourth full year of remote working, I managed to once again surpass my previous records by completing a whopping 61 books, two books more than my previous high set last year and my fourth consecutive year completing the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.  I completed the challenge in mid-November and surpassed last year’s total in mid-December.  I read 22,622 pages, by far my highest total of all time and just the second time I’ve managed to surpass 20.000 pages.

Of those books, only five were non-fiction and, of the remaining 56 novels, only five were tied to a TV show, either as the source material or as a tie-in.  None of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, with two hard covers, two paperbacks, 53 e-books and no audiobooks.  I continued to take advantage of my library card, which helped me procure 46 of the books I consumed throughout the year.

Over 69% of the books I read this year were by authors I had read before. The 19 authors that I read for the first this year were:

Jessica Knoll Isabella Maldonado Kathleen McGurl Lisa Taddeo
Lisa Jewell Millie Bobby Brown J.M. Dillard Lee Goldberg
Avery Cunningham Margot Douaihy R.F. Kuang Jessica Simpson
Jeffrey Lang Dayton Ward Holly Wilson Karin Smirnoff
Walter Beede Michael Connelly Rob Harvilla

Karin Slaughter, Jeffery Deaver, Laura Lippman, Elin Hilderbrand, Jessica Knoll, Michael Connelly, Minka Kent, Lee Goldberg, Rebecca Forster, Stephen King, and Sarah Pekkanen were the authors that I read multiple titles from during 2024.

17 of the books I read were released this year, while only three of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1997.

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Book 61 (of 52) – Dark Sacred Night

Dark Sacred Night – Michael Connelly

When Detective Renée Ballard finds a former LAPD detective hanging around the squad room rifling through cabinets, she joins him in working a cold case, the murder of a teenage prostitute nine years earlier.  She juggles her usual workload on the night shift to look through old files looking for suspects.  Meanwhile, her new friend, Harry Bosch, sees his other case, and job working part-time for the San Fernando police force, blow up after a colleague gives away the identity of his informant to the gang he’s trying to bust.  Can Bosch stay ahead of the gang that is trying to kill him?  And can he and Ballard find out what happened to a young girl nine years ago?

Michael Connelly wasted no time in getting his new character, Renée Ballard, intertwined with Harry Bosch, the detective he introduced in 1992, in Dark Sacred Night., the second entry in Ballard’s series and the 21st in Bosch’s.  After getting introduced to Ballard, and Connelly, two months ago, this was my first time interacting with the book version of Bosch.  It looks like the two characters go hand in hand going forward, so it looks like I’ll be getting more exposure in the future.

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Book 47 (of 52) – The Late Show

The Late Show – Mchael Connelly

Detective Renée Ballard, who has burned a bridge or two in her day, is assigned to the night shift in Hollywood, where she takes calls with her partner but then turns them over to the dayshift to investigate.  When a trans prostitute is beaten nearly to death, she decides that she will keep this one close to vest. giving it the attention that other cops might not.  While at the hospital looking to interview her victim, she picks up part of a bigger case, a multiple murder at a nightclub.  Both cases end up putting Ballard in danger, either personal or professional.  Can she close the cases while keeping her job and her life?

The Late Show, released in 2017, is the first entry in a new series from Michael Connelly.  This was my first time reading anything from Connelly, who was a frequent guest star as himself in Castle.  I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.