Review of the audiobook

It’s New Year’s Eve in Hollywood, and LAPD Detective Renée Ballard is waiting out the celebratory gunshots from hundreds of revelers. Not long after the new year blooms, Ballard is called to a scene where someone has been fatally hit by a bullet in the middle of a crowded street party, presumed to be from one of those celebratory bullets.

As Ballard investigates, she concludes that the deadly bullet could not have fallen from the sky. As a matter of fact, it's linked to another unsolved murder—a case that was at one time worked by Detective Harry Bosch. As Ballard bucks the rules to keep this case, she also must find a pair of serial rapists, the Midnight Men, who have been terrorizing women and leaving no trace.

Ballard is determined to solve both cases but feels like she is constantly running uphill in a police department indelibly changed by the pandemic and social unrest. In a department hampered by inertia and low morale, Ballard must break protocol and go outside to the one detective she can count on- Harry Bosch. The two detectives work together to find out how the cases intersect, but the predators they are tracking won’t give up so easily.

Michael Connelly always knows how to tell a good thriller, and listening to Titus Welliver and Christine Lakin bring THE DARK HOURS to life is a delight. It’s not easy having two separate narrators, but Lakin and Welliver allow the listener to follow Bosch and Ballard with ease and enjoyment. Well worth the listen.