The Dark Hours

LAPD Detective Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch team up to find justice in this new thriller from No. 1 bestselling author Michael Connelly.


There's chaos in Hollywood on New Year's Eve. At the end of the countdown, LAPD Detective Renee Ballard seeks shelter from the traditional rain of lead as hundreds of revellers shoot their guns into the air. Minutes later, Ballard is called to a scene where a hardworking auto shop owner has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party. Ballard swiftly concludes that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky and connects it with another unsolved murder - a case at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch. Meanwhile, Ballard still hunts a fiendish pair of serial rapists, the Midnight Men, who have been terrorising women and leaving no trace.


Finding herself up against deadly inertia and foundering morale in a police department ravaged by the pandemic and recent riots, Ballard must look outside to the one detective she can count on: Harry Bosch. But as the two determined detectives join forces, they cannot relax their guard. The brutal predators they track won't hesitate to kill to keep their secrets hidden.


Unfolding with unstoppable drive and nail-biting intrigue, The Dark Hours shows that, 'Relentless on their own, Ballard's and Bosch's combined skills . . . could be combustible' (Los Angeles Times). 


'This is unmatched crime writing at its summit.'

-The Australian


'Connelly has created heroic and flawed and very real characters who believably find ways to make things right.'

-Chicago Sun-Times


'Connelly is the real deal.'

-New York Times Book Review