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A review by markreadsbooks_sg
The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly
4.0
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.
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.