I have followed Michael Connolly’s “Harry Bosch” series of police procedural novels since they first came out. The character arcs are in real time. The lead character is now old, retired, fighting cancer but still able to mentor those who’ve become the primary protagonists. In his latest, “The Waiting,” those are young LAPD detective Renee Ballard and Bosch’s daughter Maddie, now in her third year on LAPD herself.

Connolly’s novels capture the politics of policing, particularly in the big city. In “The Waiting,” there’s a Gascon-like “progressive” district attorney who dislikes the police so much that he won’t file charges on the most infamous murder in Los Angeles history. His motive? To deny his political enemy, an honest chief of police, the credit his department (and Renee and Maddie) deserve.

For gun people, the Bosch novels are better than most. Renee carries a Glock 17 and a Ruger LCP .380 for backup, guns which last I knew were indeed approved by LAPD. About the only technical point I’d quibble with in “The Waiting” is when a bad guy points a Glock at Renee, not realizing she has cleverly unloaded it beforehand, and pulls the trigger. Click. When it doesn’t go off, he keeps pulling the trigger and gets three more clicks. Gun people realize that Glocks don’t work that way: the slide would have to be activated to reset the trigger after that first “click,” because Glocks don’t have double strike capability.

But there’s a bigger lesson for gun owners in the book’s subplot. Renee leaves her duty gun, badge, wallet and phone in her car when she goes to the beach, locking the vehicle but leaving the key in a magnetic box inside the wheel well.  Of course, gun and badge and all get stolen. Here approach to retrieving it is clever but totally out of bounds. It’s a reminder that firearms should never be left in unattended motor vehicles unless they’re locked in a secure safe therein, and car keys should remain on one’s person. Stolen guns end up in the hands of criminals, as happens in this novel. 

15 COMMENTS

  1. The “clicks” of empty guns and the hammer of a 1911 being down (video) when it should be cocked are just some of the glitches we’ll probably never get rid of. Continuity also suffers. The authors who do continuing characters ought to have spread sheets with character names and other critical information for those of us with memories. I just finished a book set in a future military where one character apparently had a mid operation sex change.

    It is nice to see characters age. I can think of a couple of series where the leads would now be our age. Apparently, the authors are writing for the present readers and old fans are supposed to suspend reality. I read Sanford’s novels, I’d like to have aged like Lucas Davenport. He seems to age at a much slower rate than his step daughter. Wouldn’t mind some of his money either.

  2. I am a connoisseur of the entire Audible “Bosch” series. So much that my firstborn Rottweiler is named Hieronymus Bosch. I just finished listening to this yesterday. There are many good lessons for us all, as you said. I just wish Michael Connelly was better informed about Glock pistols. My eyes get sore from rolling, when hearing about a “blue steel” Glock, that clicks multiple times when pulling the trigger on an unloaded chamber. Oh well, at least no kittens died from the villain racking the slide on an empty chamber (in this instance)

  3. I’ve read several of the Bosch series and they’re good reading. It’s a shame that Connolly let Amazon take what was a good adaptation of the series and take it full “woke” in the last season. Ruined it, but I guess the $$ spoke loudly.

    • Connolly started going woke himself Jerry. I turned off a Bosch/Ballard novel that takes place during covid due to Ballard so staunchly talking about wearing masks, elbow bumps, and making disparaging comments about those officers she worked with that didn’t.

  4. I haven’t read Connolly’s book, but I’ve enjoyed the Bosch and Legacy Bosch series on Amazon Prime. “Bosch” is the time while Harry Bosch is an LAPD detective, and “Bosch Legacy” is after he retires and becomes a Private Investigator.

    I’ll have to read his Novels. Thanks

  5. Connelly writes fantastic Novels. I’ve watched all the TV series and the Netflix videos and they all are really well done. I’ve also read a pile of his other books. I hope they do the video for this book too.
    Steve

  6. “It’s a reminder that firearms should never be left in unattended motor vehicles unless they’re locked in a secure safe therein, and car keys should remain on one’s person. Stolen guns end up in the hands of criminals…”

    So very true! It is a real problem. Especially in States where the ‘Right to Keep and Bear Arms’ is well supported. See this news article:

    https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/new-proposed-legislation-targets-rising-gun-thefts-from-cars-in-tn/

    Unfortunately, as the topic of this news article indicates, this problem can be exploited by the gun-grabbers as yet another vector upon which to attack our 2nd Amendment Rights. It allows them to argue, basically, that we need to restrict 2nd Amendment Rights for everybody in order to help shut down a source for stolen firearms being used by criminals.

    It is always the same argument with the firearms-prohibitionists. They always argue for suppression of the rights of the law-abiding because of the bad acts of the criminal minority. This line of argument never impresses me but it will appeal to those who think firearms provide little of value to society anyhow and, as such, may be restricted upon the least social justification.

    We can help disarm this particular line-of-attack by being responsible in securing our firearms from random thefts, especially, from vehicles. After all, we DO KNOW that stolen firearms are a PRIME source to arm criminals. I can’t quote the statistics but my impression is that a criminal buying a stolen firearm on the black-market is much more common than either (a) lawful purchase or (b) unlawful purchase by means of a “straw” buyer.

  7. Currently trying to finish a Patrick Lee novel where Beretta 92Fs have LED lights mounted on top and shotgun blasts take out 4 to 5 adversaries at once…why, why, why? 😂

  8. A “there otta be a law” comment. If gun free zones/”sensitive places” have to exist, they should be required to provide secure storage for those who carry. I have fond memories of a court house in another state where you could enter through a door by the Sheriffs Office, go into a room (in the Sheriffs Office) and store your piece in an individual locker. You took the key with you and then picked up the item on the way out, leaving the key in the lock. Kind of like the bus/train station storage lockers.

    About the last post: at least the myths of the shotgun keep a whole lot of folks from actually having to use one. Admittedly, if you don’t know better, it could be a rude surprise. BTW, some authors/script writers do purposely engage in disinformation.

    • One of my favorite places is Vancouver Island in British Columbia, which holds the record for lethal mountain lion incidents. Kathy Etling in “Cougar Attacks” relates that a school custodian kept a .30-06 rifle handy in his campus equipment room! Probably in a safe, I would guess, but nevertheless at least conditionally reachable. One day one of the local killer puma made its final appearance in the vicinity of that school. Varmint hunting out front during recess is maybe not what you would expect to be allowed in B.C., but shows what sensible firearms practice can be, and the value of a custodian who is a good shot.

    • WR Moore,

      Agreed. We should have lockers in courthouses when forced to disarm. I used to think it made sense to disarm people in a courtroom, but maybe only the defendants and plaintiffs should have to disarm. I just worry about the emotional reaction people can have when they lose a case, and their lives are negatively altered by the loss. People who are not emotionally involved in a case should not be forced to disarm.

      When private property owners, like stores and airlines, force people to disarm, they should be held legally responsible for the safety of those they disarm. If anything happens to a disarmed individual, they should be able to sue the private property owner who forced the disarming.

      I realize I am dreaming about an enlightened society which only exists in my mind. The real world allows rights to be infringed.

  9. “The Waiting” is over. The new catch phrase is “People is Policy.” The Media Mob has been exposed as a naked and afraid, wannabe Emperor. Social Media has appeared as a powerful vehicle to bring the free and freed political descendants of the “We the People” of the Declaration of Independence of 1776 as the force needed to maintain the life of our threatened Constitution. Thank God for every single, indispensable Amendment.

  10. Sorry, “People ARE policy” is likely more correct than “People is Policy.” My bad. At any rate, the idea is that “The Culture is Changing” now in a positive direction. Thanks to Dan Bongino for his strongly expressed faith in our Constitution.

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