#BlogTour-‘Dark Sacred Night’ by @Connellybooks

About the book…

In a thrilling new partnership, ‘Dark Sacred Night’ picks up the story of detective Harry Bosch in the first novel in a new series, pairing Bosch’s talents with that of Renee Ballard, who made her entrance in the Ballard series-opener The Late Show.

At the end of a long, dark night Detectives Renee Ballard and Harry Bosch cross paths for the very first time.

Detective Renee Ballard is working the graveyard shift again, and returns to Hollywood Station in the early hours only to find that an older man has snuck in and is rifling through old file cabinets. The intruder is none other than legendary LAPD detective Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch, working a cold case that has crept under his skin.

Unimpressed, Ballard kicks him out, but eventually Bosch persuades her to help and she reluctantly relents. Because Bosch is on the trail of a cold-case which refuses to stay buried; investigating the death of fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton, a runaway who was brutally murdered. It’s a case that haunts Bosch – who crossed paths with Daisy’s devastated mother on a previous case. As Bosch and Ballard are drawn deeper into the mystery of her murder, they find there are more surprises awaiting them in the darkness.

‘Dark Sacred Night’ lifts its title from the Louis Armstrong classic, ‘What A Wonderful World’.This may seem ironic, given that this is a novel dealing with murder and a cold case, however, not only does it reflect Renee Ballard’s night time detail, it could be said to represent the hope that remains whilst people like her and Bosch are around.

They both have personailites which leap off the page, this is the second outing for Ballard and the 21st Bosch novel as well as being the first in a new series.

Ballard is introduced in a brilliant scene at the very beginning of what looks like a murder but turns out to be something very different-this establishes her as being thoughtful, quick and a great lateral thinker. So when she comes across Bosch looking for files in a place where he shouldn’t be able to access, her spidey senses start tingling.

In a neat piece of fourth wall breaking, as she is ringing around trying to get background on Bosch, his legend goes before him-everyone either knows him or knows of him via an urban tale of his exploits.

This is what is so great about Michael Connelly , he manages to include anyone who is a first time reader, not talk down to his regular crew AND establish the start of a new series.

Ballard has been moved to the night time crew as a result of a sexual harrassment case against her previous boss-she got moved sideways, he got away with it.

Her interest is piqued by the fact that Bosch is looking into a cold case of a 15 year old girl who was murdered and dumped, the disposability of women and their bodies/careers/future is an underlying them throughout the book as Ballard becomes increasingly keen to bring home justice to Daisy, prove herself as a detective AND work with Bosch . She does the night, he does the day. She can get to places that he can’t as he is retired, but he can get places/start conversations that a woman can’t.

Apart from being a cracking police procedural novel, this is an exciting kickoff for a new partnership for Bosch. I am looking forward to finding out more about Ballard in her third outing (this time she and Bosch are bringing Connelly stalwart Mickey Haller along for the ride).

Out in October, ‘The Night Fire’ looks like another must read! The paperback edition of ‘Dark Sacred Night has a sampler of ‘The Night Fire’ , and it has definitely made me eager to read more.

This was not my alltime favourite Connelly book, that will always be ‘The Black Echo’, but I would absolutely recommend it and also the Bosch tv series on Amazon Prime. Series 5 has just started and it is just everything. Love it love it love it! It keeps the flavour of the books and adds another dimension to the characters which deepens your love for the books.

Many thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for the blogtour invite, as well as the Orion team who provided my review copy-thank you so much!

About the author…

Having sold – to date – more than seventy-four million copies of his novels worldwide, Philadelphia-born author Michael Connelly is one of the most successful crime writers working today. A lifelong fan of Raymond Chandler, Connelly worked as a journalist, co-authoring a magazine story that was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize.

His first novel, The Black Echo, won the prominent Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992 and launched the phenomenally popular Harry Bosch series. He is also the author of the Mickey Haller series as well as several stand-alone novels and other mini-series. His novels ‘‘Blood Work’ and ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ have both been successfully adapted for screen.

Links-https://www.michaelconnelly.com/

          https://www.compulsivereaders.com/

  https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/michael-connelly-from-bosch-and-ballard-to-real-life-detectives-1.3671769

Twitter @Connellybooks

             @orionbooks

             @Tr4cyF3n0n