Review of "The Waiting: A Renée Ballard and Harry Bosch Thriller" by Michael Connelly

LAPD Detective Renée Ballard was on the fast track in the Robbery-Homicide Division until she fell out with her boss. Renee's career suffered after that, but she's now comfortably ensconced as head of the Open-Unsolved Unit, a division that looks into cold cases.





Other than Renée, who's a full-time sworn officer, the members of the Open-Unsolved Unit are all volunteers. The members include a retired FBI agent; a former police officer; a former prosecutor; and a man who'd volunteered with the Swedish police in his native Stockholm.



The unit also contains a woman named Colleen Hatteras, who's an expert in genetic genealogy. Colleen uses DNA analysis to hunt down family histories and genetic connections.



Renée paddleboards and surfs for relaxation, often in the early morning before work. One day Renée returns to her car after surfing and finds that her badge, gun, credit card, and phone have been stolen. Renée is reluctant to report the loss to the LAPD, for fear of the consequences, so she decides to track down the burglar herself.



Renée uses her resources to locate the thief, who's sold her things on. Renée discovers that the man who bought her badge belongs to a terrorist group with a deadly agenda. Knowing she needs help to apprehend the insurrectionists and retrieve her badge, Renée calls on her retired colleague (and friend) Harry Bosch.



Meanwhile, the Open-Unsolved Unit gets involved in two big cases. The first is the Pillowcase Rapist, who had terrorized the city for five years beginning in 2000. Dozens of women were assaulted in their homes.



Each victim had been sleeping and woke up as a pillowcase was pulled over her head. After the assault, the rapist choked each victim into unconsciousness, hog-tied her snap ties, and escaped. The attacks concluded with the murder of Abby Sinclair in 2005, after which the Pillowcase Rapist went dark.


Now, a young man called Nicholas Purcell has been arrested, and DNA analysis proves the Pillowcase Rapist is his father. Genealogy expert Colleen helps Renée and the Open-Unsolved Unit track down Nicholas' father, which turns out to be a tricky and treacherous business.



The second big case for the Open-Unsolved Unit is brought in by Harry's Bosch's daughter Maddie Bosch, who's a uniformed police officer.



Maddie wants to volunteer for the cold case division between shifts, and she brings a notorious case with her: the unsolved murder of 'The Black Dahlia' (Elizabeth Short) in 1947.



Maddie 'lucked into' the Black Dahlia case when she rented a storage unit, and the manager of the facility mentioned cleaning out an abandoned locker that contained photos of Elizabeth Short's dead body.



Before long, the Open-Unsolved Unit is off and running.....hoping to solve the Black Dahlia case.





There's plenty of excitement and danger in this novel, and it's interesting to follow the investigators as they track down persons of interest and work to close the cases.

The 'Harry Bosch Universe' is a long-running series that began in 1992. The characters evolved over the course of time, and youthful maverick Harry is now a retiree with health problems. Harry's daughter Maddie, whom we first meet as a child, is now a cop following in her dad's footsteps. Renée Ballard is a fine successor to Harry, but it's great that Harry still uses his smarts to help out police investigations.



This is a fine addition to the series, highly recommended to fans of thrillers.

 Rating: 4 stars