Michael Connelly embarks on new series with Orion

Michael Connelly is to begin a new series with Orion this year, as well as publishing a further Harry Bosch novel.

The Late Show is a thriller starring Connelly's first new protagonist in a decade, a driven young detective, Renee Ballard, trying to prove herself in the Los Angeles Police Department. The book will get a UK publication in July.

Ballard works the night shift in Hollywood, beginning many investigations but finishing none as each morning she turns her cases over to day shift detectives. A once up-and-coming detective, she's been given this beat as punishment after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor. But one night she catches two cases she doesn't want to part with: the brutal beating of a prostitute left for dead in a parking lot and the killing of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. Ballard is determined not to give up at dawn. Against orders and her own partner's wishes, she works both cases by day while maintaining her shift by night. As the cases entwine they pull her closer to her own demons, and the reason she won't give up her job no matter what the department throws at her.

Connelly, a former newspaper reporter, is the author of 29 novels including The Wrong Side of Goodbye and The Crossing (both Orion). He is also the executive producer of the Amazon Original Series “Bosch,” starring Titus Welliver.

He said: "I have been contemplating a new character like Renee Ballard for a long time and now seemed like the time to write the book. It’s been 10 years since I introduced a new protagonist so I am very excited about this."

Meanwhile the next installment in Connelly's Harry Bosch series, as-yet-untitled, will be out in the autumn.