THE LATE SHOW by Michael Connelly

Finished Sa 10/5/19

This is a hardback that Janny loaned me.

The title refers to 'third shift' or working 11pm to 7am. This is where they place police who are 'problems'.

This book introduces a new character- Renee Ballard. At first I thought Rene was a little too 'goody-goody', but she is one of the sharpest detectives in fiction. She can really 'work a case'.

Renee is a avid surfer and grew up in Hawaii and her father died when surfing. She was on the beach and only fourteen years old. Her mother just 'shut down', and became a recluse. Rene was basically homeless until her grandmother (Tutu) from California took her to the mainline.

Renee is on the 'night shift' because a senior officer made sexual advances and she resisted. Her partner Ken Chastain witnessed the incident, but he wouldn't back her up because he was more interested in career advancement.

Two big cases that drives the book:

1) A shooting at Dancer's nightclub. Four mob members and a couple of staff are shot and killed. Rene believes that a cop was responsible. And, it turned out to be fact.

2) A transsexual is beaten nearly to death. A car salesman is responsible. He uses brass (metal) knuckles that are stamped 'Good' and 'Evil'. He lives in a house in the Hollywood Hills called 'the upside down house'. You walk in and the living areas, kitchen, living room, etc. are on the ground floor and the bedrooms are downstairs.

Renee chases down the cop lead at Dancer's. She thinks it's the senior officer who stuck her on 'the late show', but it's actually another cop. A cop who seems to be helping her.

Renee is kidnapped by Trent, the transsexual abductor, and she kills him. She beats him up with the broom stick that was in the sliding glass door. And then she stabbed in with a splintered chair leg (like using a shiv).

Renee lives on the beach and surfs after her shift. She has a loyal dog named Lola.

 From an online review:

"Renée Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she’s been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor.

But one night she catches two cases she doesn’t want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her own partner’s wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the cases entwine they pull her closer to her own demons and the reason she won’t give up her job no matter what the department throws at her".