The Waiting
A Ballard and Bosch Novel
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4.4 • 3.5K Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a serial rapist whose trail has gone cold, and enlists a new volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: patrol officer Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter.
Renée Ballard and the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet two decades ago. The arrested man is only twenty-four, so the genetic link must be familial: His father was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the City of Angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles.
Meanwhile, Ballard’s badge, gun, and ID are stolen—a theft she can’t report without giving her enemies in the department ammunition to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her mission draws her into unexpected danger. With no choice but to go outside the department for help, she knocks on the door of Harry Bosch.
At the same time, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit: Bosch’s daughter Maddie, now a patrol officer. But Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls—a case that may be the most iconic in the city’s history. Complex, satisfying, and full of dexterous twists, The Waiting demonstrates once more that “you can’t do better than Michael Connelly” (Forbes).
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A new lead on a cold case draws an LAPD detective and a colleague’s daughter into the same intense investigation in this mystery from Michael Connelly’s long-running Renée Ballard series. When the arrest of a young man provides a genetic link to a 20-year-old cold case, Renée leaps at the possibility of finally finding the so-called Pillowcase Rapist. But when her gun and badge are stolen, she has to look outside the department for help, calling on retired PI Harry Bosch and enlisting his daughter, Maddie, a patrol officer with her own reasons for joining up. Connelly created a superb crime fiction universe with his even-longer-running Harry Bosch series, and Renée Ballard fits into it perfectly. Renée and Maddie both prove to be fascinating characters, with troubled pasts and complicated motives that pop up in unexpected ways. Riveting and complex, this procedural is a worthy addition to both series—and a great place to start either one.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the start of Connelly's unputdownable sixth crime thriller costarring Renée Ballard (after Desert Star), the LAPD detective's badge and gun are stolen from her car while she's surfing. In the process of getting them back, she uncovers evidence that an extremist group is planning a terrorist attack in Malibu and enlists her friend Harry Bosch—still recovering from cancer—and the FBI to thwart it. Meanwhile, Ballard handles a number of high-stakes cases as leader of the LAPD's cold case unit. First, her team of volunteers finds a DNA match that opens the door to solving a string of sexual assaults, dating back 20 years, by the "Pillowcase Rapist." Then Harry's daughter, Maddie, a patrol officer, joins Ballard's team after stumbling on some explosive evidence related to the 1947 Black Dahlia killing, "the most famous unsolved murder in the history of Los Angeles." As always, Connelly brilliantly renders the ins and outs of these investigations, all while adding layers to Ballard's backstory—including a moving subplot about her missing mother—and delivering white-hot suspense guaranteed to please his fans. This ranks with Connelly's best.
Customer Reviews
Typical Michael Connelly, and That’s a Good Thing
I know some reviewers were negative because of the right wing domestic terrorism theme, but they need to lighten up. This is typical Michael Connolly with surprising plot twists and wonderfully drawn characters.
Disappointing, a betrayal of great talent.
It’s disappointing that Connelly’s books have become stripped down versions of his earlier work. This book features Rene Ballard, LAPD detective heading up the Open Unsolved department. She’s never appealed to me — Connelly doesn’t write women at all well, and someone probably told him he good at it. Except there is no clear sense of a difference between the various women’s manner of speaking or behavior. The bulk of the book is a chain of text messages and phone calls, people coming and going to several locations, and confusing exposition of the several cases involving Ballard and the unit. They are hard to follow, interspersed as they are with a private investigation of Ballard’s.
I know it has to be hard to keep up with contracts demanding a book a year, particularly if you’re juggling three characters. Concentration must be under pressure. Maybe it’s a stretch to expect the books to take pride of place when multiple TV series are competing for time. I wish Mr. Connelly would go back to his earliest titles to remember how good he is. Maybe he could be inspired by his earlier writing to refresh his work today.
Read This Series
5 Stars. Connelly is incredible. He keeps writing great characters and stories. This one was right up there with his best. I’m way behind on his work. I kind of started reading him with this series after the first or second Bosch book. I have to get moving on them. Connelly has officially become my Robert B. Parker follow up.
This story had just about everything. Highs and lows, excellent mystery and great characters. This series can be read on its own I think. Give it a try if you haven’t. I think this is going to get the TV treatment. I can’t wait.