Renee Ballard wanted to provide a good service as a detective but the department for which she is working has not been very helpful to her. At first, she had the morning shift under her grasp for a while but it was snatched from her when she put a harassment complaint against a senior. There was a clear indication to her that she was not needed anymore that’s why she was given the night shift.
Thus she is not given the chance to solve any of the cases because she only gathers information during the night and in the morning she gives all of those things to the detectives who are working the morning shift. One night an unusual thing happens to Renee when she gets two cases in the same night.
The two cases were linked to women as one of them was killed in the parking spot and the other was shot at the nightclub. Somehow Renee thought that she should solve those two cases on her own. Though her partner thought that she was not making a wise decision but she wasn’t able to back down from these cases which had some resemblance to her own past.
Michael Connelly finally shows the true nature of his main character in the middle of the novel when Renee goes against the orders of her seniors. Narrator Katherine Moennig has given Renee a more confident voice at the point when she takes everything into her own hands. Desert Star and The Law of Innocence: Booktrack Edition is a bit low in intensity if we compare them with this novel. However, these two novels have their own quality which cannot be negated at any rate.
