Dark Sacred Night is the first time Ballard and Bosch get together, but I’m not sure if they are greater together. At this point, Bosch is dealing with the ramifications of a previous case, where he met and became close to a drug addict who is haunted by her daughter’s death. Ballard is working solo for the whole book, as her partner is on leave. I’m not sure it would be possible to read this book out of sequence – knowing the background for both of these characters is pretty important.
*Some spoilers – but not who the killer is!*
There are a number of threads in this book, with both the cold case of the dead daughter, as well as Bosch’s investigation of a cold case of a gang member’s death involved. The second case sets a number of things in motion – a witness dies, a cop hangs himself, and Bosch gets kidnapped with plans for torture before being saved. I’m sure this is going to be relevant for a future book, but I wasn’t that interested. I was more interested in the case of Daisy, the long cold case that Bosch becomes obsessed by.
Bosch and Ballard try to dig up old files and notes from that time, to see who would have been on the streets and had a van back then. The final realisation of the killer comes out of the blue – an offhand mention of a person in old files makes Ballard sure that this person is the killer. For some insane reason, she suddenly decides it is vital that she investigate all by herself, breaking in without a warrant and without backup. This obviously goes wrong, and Bosch gets to save Ballard in return. Then, we get some worrying moral decisions.
To be honest, I’m not sure I’m in favour of morally grey detectives. Once the detectives start deciding that they are outside the law, this turns from a crime novel and into a personality driven story, where we are supposed to love the character SOO MUCH we don’t care that they have become a vigilante. My bitterness on this may be connected to recent Luther episodes, I shall confess.
I read this book about ten days ago, and the story has already started to fade somewhat in my memory. Not a great sign.