Posted in: Amazon Studios, Books, Opinion, Pop Culture, TV, TV | Tagged: amazon studios, Bosch, harry bosch, Michael Connelly, Mitzi Roberts, Renée Ballard, Titus Welliver

Bosch Universe: Catching Up with Michael Connelly's Det. Renée Ballard

With a new novel and "Bosch Universe" series on the way, here's what you need to know about author Michael Connelly's Det. Renée Ballard.

Bosch and its spinoff/sequel Bosch: Legacy are now established as popular TV series adapted from his decades-long novel series, so Michael Connelly and a new team of writers are preparing another spinoff in the cop universe of Harry Bosch (played by Titus Welliver) – a new Amazon series featuring LAPD Detective Renée Ballard, played by the CW's La Femme Nikita (and former action heroine in Hong Kong movies) star Maggie Q. Connelly tweeted the order of the books that featured Ballard as a prelude to the upcoming TV series – so we thought now would be a great time to catch up on the character.

Who is Renée Ballard?

Renée Ballard is a LAPD detective in her thirties, first introduced as the protagonist in Connelly's 2017 novel The Late Show. Connelly has said he was inspired by real-life LAPD detective Mitzi Roberts, who has been on the job for 24 years and has been a consultant on the Bosch series. By then, Bosch had retired from the force and was working as a private investigator, and Connelly introduced her as a possible replacement for Bosch if he ever decided to move on from the character. At the start of The Late Show, Ballard had been demoted from the elite Robbery Homicide Division to a graveyard shift in the Hollywood Division called "The Late Show" after fending off sexual harassment from her boss in RHD and getting hung out to dry by her then-partner. She had found her niche in the late-shift, picking up cases and reports that come in during the night shift and solving them on her own or preparing the groundwork to hand off to day-shift detectives who take over the cases.

In her own way, Ballard is as much a maverick as Bosch in her determination to close cases, especially when it comes to bending the rules. She might be better at evading the political mess (that Bosch bulldozes through), negotiating with and getting favours from an informal network of female cops who were her friends and allies. In short, she's better at making friends than Bosch ever was – and keeping them.

Meeting Harry Bosch

Ballard first met Bosch in Connelly's 2018 book Dark Sacred Night when she stumbles upon him during the late shift going through a cold case file. She agrees to team up with him to solve a years-old killing of a teenage runaway, and Bosch recognizes in her a kindred spirit. Ballard saves Bosch from a gang that had been gunning for him, which deepens their bond. Ballard and Bosch team up again in 2019's The Night Fire when he asks her to help investigate a cold case that his own late mentor took with him.

In seeking his mentorship, Ballard also fills an unconscious wound from the loss of her surfer father when she was a teenager. Bosch also finds himself with a surrogate daughter, but it's a professional relationship where they still have to hold each other at a distance because she's still in the system, and she knows he's even more prone to going rogue now that he's no longer a cop.

A major turning point comes in Ballard's career in 2021's The Dark Hours, set during the COVID pandemic and the chaotic week leading up to New Year's Eve, where Ballard is saddled with a lazy and unreliable partner as she investigates a fatal shooting that turns out to be linked to an unsolved murder previously investigated by Bosch. Ballard grows frustrated with the politics and stonewalling response of the rest of the LAPD and decides to resign to join him as his partner in his private investigations business – but not before she makes a final fuck-you play to the LAPD by exposing a corrupt cop, solving the shooting and previous murder, and closing the book on a pair of serial rapists the cops failed to catch for months. Her work impresses the Commissioner so much that he asks her to stay and write her own ticket in the LAPD.

Ballard's New Status Quo

In the 2022 book Desert Star, it's been a year since the end of The Dark Hours, and Ballard has agreed to stay in the LAPD with a new role. She hadn't spoken to him for a year since he got pissed off when she told him she wouldn't be joining him as his partner in private investigations after all. Ballard finally contacts Bosch and extends an olive branch by inviting him to help in a new cold cases division she set up and now leads. Bosch is impressed that this is the ticket she chose to write for herself, a corner of the department that's entirely her own but still facing political scrutiny. This makes him wary of her since it makes her a political animal in his eyes, even though he recognizes what she needs to do to continue the work they both believe in – to solve otherwise neglected and abandoned cases as part of the credo they believe in: "Everyone counts, or nobody counts." Ballard also discovers Bosch's cancer has returned and might be terminal, which could give Connelly an option to permanently retire Bosch if (we emphasize "if") the time comes.

Setting Up the Renée Ballard TV Series

Ballard's current job as the head of a cold cases division lines up with the set-up for her TV series. It's a way to make the series different from Bosch and from any other cop show and brings it in line with the current books, including the next Ballard novel. As an Amazon Studios show, it also allows for crossovers where Bosch and his daughter Maddie could show up. The series also gives the writers a chance to bring back fan favourites Crate and Barrel as potential volunteer investigators for Ballard's division. So far, casting has not been announced yet for the rest of the series.

Bosch and Bosch: Legacy is streaming on Prime.

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