The Late Show, sounds like the last screening of a movie, but in cop speak it is the night duty that nobody want to take on willingly. This is when the worst crimes take place under cover of darkness, and working the graveyard shift can be hazardous to mental health. But when Renee Ballard is dumped on the Late Show by a vengeful superior, she makes the best of it.

Michael Connelly has already created characters like LA cop Harry Bosch and his smart, brash half-brother, Mickey Haller, better known as the Lincoln Lawyer (who had a movie made on him, starring Matthew McConaughey). In spite of all these books being bestsellers, the writer felt impelled to introduce a new character, a female one at that.

Detective Renée Ballard is young, smart, tough, and all kinds of terrific. She defiantly accepted the night shift, which was imposed on her when complained of sexual harassment by her boss and her partner, Ken Chastain, failed to back her up.  She carries this resentment to her new post, with her dull but loyal new partner John Jenkins, who would rather sit in his office and do paperwork than chase after criminals. But Ballard is straining at the leash, because officers on the night shift have to just write up reports and hand over cases to day cops on the beat. And she is too dedicated to the force to want to be a gloried clerk.

The book is set in Southern California, where homeless Ballard lives on the beach in a tent, paddling when she has the time and hanging out with her dog, Lola.  Ballard grew up in Hawaii, her father drowned, her mother disowned her, so the only living relative is her grandmother, Tutu.

Even though she is not meant to follow up on crimes, Ballard does not let go, whether it is a credit card theft that leads to a bigger scam, or the case of a cross-dresser who has been savagely beaten and left for dead. The same eventful night, there are five people killed in a nightclub shootout. So Ballard puts a lot on her plate in the breathtakingly fast paced book; she is also kidnapped and tortured, but she solves everything in the end and also gets to tell her boss to go to hell (not in these words).

Interestingly, Mumbai features in the book in credit card call centre sequences, with a man called Irfan Khan, and the coroner is an Indian woman called Jayalalithaa Panneerselvam—now where did Connelly find names like that!

Connelly won’t let go of a heroine like that after just one book, so readers will definitely get more of Renee Ballard and hopefully she will head a movie franchise too. Such a kickass female, who can fight as well as she can tongue lash, is made for showbiz. Maybe Reese Witherspoon—who has an instinct for picking books with great heroines to take from page to screen--is already giving this one a look.

The Late Show

By Michael Connelly

Publisher: Little, Brown

Pages: 400