Connelly’s New Kid on the Block.

Renee Ballard: finally a female detective I can get on board with.

Michael Connelly’s latest incarnation of the classic detective is refreshingly...fresh. She’s everything you’d want in a detective: tough, troubled and intent on justice, but she’s not Harry Bosch.  She’s young, a little vulnerable and a little wet behind the ears.  Happily, Connelly does not feel the need to keep her in a glass box of fragile femininity. She plays by the same rules as her male counter parts, and manages to maintain the cold distance of a classic detective without being a bitch.  She maintains the traditions of the classics: she’s a lone wolf, displays maverick character traits and is emotionally unavailable.  Connelly creates all this but manages to make her cool. Renee Ballard is definitely a detective for the twenty first century.

However, Ballard is not without her issues, and Connelly keeps her real by ensuring she is not perfect. She has instinct, absolutely, but she makes mistakes. As you would expect from any good fictional detective, she has a past that defines her character and her decisions. It’s about time we had a a female lead that is not as pure and righteous as the driven snow like many of her female counterparts.

Perhaps what I like most about this novel and this detective is that it seems like Connelly himself is still getting to know his new detective. She does not come with the same bravado that Micky Haller was born with, nor the world weary weight that Harry Bosch inevitably carries around with him. As you read, you get a sense that the character of Ballard is still being formed; like any real person her experiences, past and present, are forming her character, and it’s exciting to see this happening. Ballard definitely holds promise, and I can’t wait to see where the next book will lead.

As you would expect from any Connelly novel, you get a gripping plot with twists and turns you don’t see coming. Ballard is not fresh from the academy and the reader gets to see her doing her thing, and generally doing it well. Impressively, Connelly shows understanding of a woman working in a man’s world, and depsite his previous success in writing women detectives well (Rachel Walling, Kiz Ryder, Eleanor Wish) this feels different: this has longevity.

I encourage fans of crime fiction to give this new kid on the block a chance. She’s breaking a lot of the rules, but you’ll love her for it.