THE LATE SHOW (Renee Ballard #1) (audiobook) by Michael Connelly


Published by Hachette Audio in July of 2017.
Read by Katherine Moennig
Duration: 9 hours, 22 minutes
Unabridged

Synopsis

Michael Connelly moves away from the aging Harry Bosch character in The Late Show and starts a new character firmly in the same literary universe.

Renee Ballard is a detective that works the night shift. Most of her cases aren't really her cases at all - her job mostly consists of taking names, doing preliminary interviews and then turning everything over to the day shift to finish. This job was a demotion because she filed a righteous sexual harassment claim on a boss, but was not backed up by her partner who was more interested in sucking up to his boss for a promotion than doing the right thing.

So, Ballard tries her best to do more than just be the person that hands the cases off to other guys. She is a good cop with shades of Harry Bosch, meaning she can get obsessed and play with the rules if she feels like the rules get in the way. When she catches a case that no one cares about involving a transgendered streetwalker prostitute who was nearly beaten to death. Ballard thinks that there may be more to this case than meets the eye so she decides to pursue it. Besides, she loves the underdog and no one is more of an underdog than this victim...
Michael Connelly.
Photo by Mark Coggins.


My Review

Personally, I was disappointed by this story. There are two mysteries - the one with the prostitute is an excellent mystery, the secondary story involving multiple murders at a night club was too far-fetched for me. Also, I was not very fond of Renee Ballard's backstory. I am generally a fan of all things Michael Connelly. I have reviewed 23 Michael Connelly books and this is only the third that was not a 4 or 5 star.

The reader, Katherine Moennig is an established actress (she worked in a movie based on a book written by Connelly), but I did not enjoy her work as an audiobook reader. It never felt like she established any sort of stride or comfort level as a reader. 

 I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: The Late Show by Michael Connelly.

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