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Bosch: Does New Michael Connelly Novel Offer "Ballard" Cast Clues?

Could Michael Connelly's The Waiting offer hints of the supporting cast for the Bosch: Legacy spinoff series spotlighting Det. Renée Ballard?

Bosch and Bosch: Legacy creator Michael Connelly not only has the upcoming untitled Renée Ballard spinoff series starring Maggie Q coming up but also a new Ballard and Bosch novel, The Waiting, coming out on October 15th. In the new book, Connelly introduces us to the regular cast in Ballard's cold case unit at the Los Angeles Police Department and has both Harry Bosch and Maddie Bosch helping with some very dire situations. In an excerpt that was previously released, we were introduced to Det. Ballard's team – here's a look, followed by our thoughts on how what we know about the team so far would work well for a live-action streaming series.

Excerpt from "The Waiting: A Ballard and Bosch Novel"

"She had finally reached a point where she was happy with the squad she had curated.

Gathered at the raft were Tom Laffont, FBI retired; Lilia Aghzafi, who had done twenty years with Vegas Metro; and Paul Masser, formerly a major crimes prosecutor with the district attorney's office. Colleen Hatteras had never been a police officer. She had been a stay-at-home mom who got hooked on genetic genealogy and took online courses in its application to law enforcement. She was a relentless warrior at the keyboard and at butting into the personal business of the other members of the team, with a primary focus on Ballard. She was also a self-described empath who never shied away from expressing the feelings she picked up from people. Ballard reluctantly put up with this because of Colleen's case-related skills.

The newest member of the unit was Anders Persson, who was even more of an outlier than Hatteras. His law enforcement experience was limited to volunteer work with the Swedish Police Authority in his hometown of Stockholm. But Persson, just twenty-eight years old, now used his computer skills to run an L.A.-based software company by night and assist the OU team by day. While Hatteras was the expert in running down family histories and genetic connections, Persson was the go-to guy when it came to navigating the internet and finding people who had gone to extreme lengths  to avoid being found. Together, Hatteras and Persson were a formidable team that complemented those on the unit with real police and investigative experience. And while the unit and Ballard were still recovering from a major hit to their reputations caused by an earlier case that had gone awry, Ballard felt the team was now humming like a well-tuned motor. The raft had room for two more volunteers, but Ballard was satisfied with what they were accomplishing."

The Supporting Cast to Watch For

The cast of the book sounds like a TV-ready supporting cast, all new in the new book aside from Hatteras. Persson is the new quirky and unexpected addition to Ballard's squad that feels like a TV character and possibly a nod to Scandinoir. Colleen Hatteras was introduced a few books previously in Desert Star, one of the first members of Ballard's then-new unit that both Bosch and Ballard find a bit irritating because of her tendency to gossip and be a bit of a busybody, not to mention her claims of being an empath is a semi-mystical trait that Bosch especially finds irritating. She sounds too good to resist having on the TV series, so who they cast to play her should be fun. We could be totally wrong, but the books are edging closer to the TV series, and casting is underway for the spinoff.

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