LAPD detective Renâee Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to hunt the brutal killer who is Bosch's "white whale"--a man responsible for the murder of an entire family.
Connelly delivers another winner ... Told with the same smooth prose that his fans have come to expect, Michael Connelly’s Desert Star twists and turns its way towards a gripping and thrilling final act that’s impossible to put down. While Connelly continues to build out Ballard, who may one day very well carry this franchise on her own, he certainly hasn’t forgotten about Bosch ... It’s especially fun to see Harry’s low-tech, old-school approach versus Renee’s penchant to embrace technology and newer, cutting-edge forensics. The balance is nice, but more importantly, highlights how the two characters really are better together than apart ... yet another page-turning, can’t-miss thriller from authors to ever do it.
Both cases are absorbing and Ballard's outings with Bosch have made her a sharper (and crankier) character. Best of all, Bosch gains intriguing depth as he faces down death, unsure of the legacy he's leaving his daughter, also now a cop, or the corpse-strewn streets of Los Angeles.
Connelly has long been a master at demonstrating the meticulousness with which good cops make cases, and here he is able to generate genuine suspense through a careful recounting of the procedural process, whether it involves feet on the street or fingers on the keyboard. Eventually, though, the bad guys behind the DNA swabs need confronting, and that gives Connelly the chance to show his action-writing chops. Longtime Bosch followers will be taking deep breaths after this one’s superb finale, especially given its implications for the future.
