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Posted in: Amazon Studios, Books, Pop Culture, TV | Tagged: ballard, Bosch, Michael Connelly
The Waiting: Thoughts on New Bosch/Ballard Novel & Our TV Takeaways
Bestselling author Michael Connelly's The Waiting is an excellent continuation of the Harry Bosch/Renée Ballard dynamic that might also offer some insights into the Maggie Q-starring Ballard spinoff series.
The next season of Bosch: Legacy is the last, with the franchise's spotlight also shining on a new spinoff series starring Detective Renée Ballard (Maggie Q.), a policewoman who's as relentless as Harry Bosch and who became his unofficial partner and protégé in the novels. Creator and author Michael Connelly has published the latest Bosch & Ballard novel, The Waiting, and has hinted that it might contain clues to what the Ballard series will look like since there is a crossover between book and show as he wrote it while the first season was being developed. With that in mind, it's fun to read the new book for itself and think about what might be in the shows moving forward, with the novel working effectively on both levels.
A Proper Continuation of the Bosch Saga
The Waiting is the sixth Ballard novel and the fifth Bosch & Ballard book after the first that introduced her solo. It might be Connelly's most ambitious and intricate novel in the Bosch series, given how many balls he juggles in the plot – Ballard has her badge and gun stolen and needs to get them back without the rest of the department knowing because, for a woman with enemies in the LAPD, it would mean the end of her career, so the only one she can trust to help her is Harry Bosch, retired maverick and now private investigator and private citizen; in her day job at the Cold Case unit she leads, an open case lands a lead in the long-unsolved "Pillowcase Rapist" case (based on a real-life case in Los Angeles); Harry's daughter Maddie Bosch, still a rookie cop, joins the unit as a volunteer (as are most of the unit's members) intent on solving the infamous Black Dahlia case, a unsolved 1947 real-life murder case that's part of the dark myth of Los Angeles. As Ballard juggles multiple cases, everyone is in danger, and Ballard has to keep them all safe.
Michael Connelly's plots have always been intricate, but this might have the most moving parts of all his books, that's saying a lot. Bosch's daughter Maddie is still coming into her own, as compared to Ballard. The latter is a more complex and compelling character as Harry's undeclared surrogate daughter. The unexpected but welcome surprise in The Waiting is the reveal of Ballard's personal trauma and central wound that drives her, which is like Harry Bosch's own and explains why the two of them were drawn together five books ago, though neither was ever aware of each other's personal history. That's the unspoken bond between Bosch and Ballard that drives their relationship and keeps us interested in them as a duo. If you're a fan of Connelly's books, this is as good as ever, though your mileage may vary over his decision to include two real-life murder cases in his fiction for the first time.
The Waiting: Some Possible Paths for the TV Universe?
Connelly has already said elements from the yet-to-be-titled TV series crossed over to The Waiting, such as Ballard now living in an upmarket and swanky part of Malibu near the surf and closer to work. Bosch already shows up in the Ballard-dominated books as a supporting player when he's not the main character, so that implies a path to have Titus Welliver guest star on the Ballard series as Bosch from time to time. Maddie Bosch showing up in a book to be a prominent character for the first time here also hints at an opening for Madeline Lintz to guest or even eventually become a regular on the new series since cops and retired cops pop in and out of Ballard's Cold Case unit on a rotating basis. Speculating on all this is just a bit of fun if you like thinking about how pieces from a book would fit into a TV show. Otherwise, The Waiting is as good and fun a standalone Bosch & Ballard book as ever.
The Waiting is now available in bookstores.
The Waiting: A Bosch and Ballard Novel
8.5/10
The new novel is a great continuation of the story of Harry Bosch and Renée Ballard, one of the most intricately plotted books Michael Connelly has written with a surprising, overdue reveal of Ballard's personal trauma and wound that drives her that makes her Bosch's heir apparent. The book also offers many hints and paths for the upcoming TV series featuring Ballard and her Cold Case unit.
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