
The Waiting
- NYT bestseller · 4 weeks on the list, peaked at #1
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
“The Waiting” is a busy Ballard novel in which Maddie Bosch, Harry’s daughter, joins the cold-case unit. A DNA hit on a young man just arrested points to his father, a serial rapist and killer silent for two decades, but secrets and legal hurdles get in the way. Some readers enjoy watching Ballard grow as a leader; others find none of the parallel cases gripping, or object to the politics they see in it.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry's daughter. Renée Ballard and the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles. Meanwhile, Ballard's badge, gun, and ID are stolen-a theft she can't report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch. Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch's daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city's library of lost souls.
Reading order · Harry Bosch
Full order & progress →- The Black EchoStart here
7.87.8 / 10 - The Black Ice
7.77.7 / 10 - The Concrete Blonde
8.08.0 / 10 - The Last Coyote
8.08.0 / 10 - Trunk Music
7.97.9 / 10 - Angels Flight
7.97.9 / 10 - A Darkness More Than Night
7.77.7 / 10 - City of Bones
7.87.8 / 10 - Lost Light
7.97.9 / 10 - The Narrows
7.87.8 / 10 - The Closers
7.97.9 / 10 - Echo Park
7.97.9 / 10 - The Overlook
7.77.7 / 10 - Nine Dragons
7.77.7 / 10 - The Drop
7.97.9 / 10 - The Black Box
7.87.8 / 10 - The Burning Room
7.87.8 / 10 - The Crossing
8.08.0 / 10 - The Wrong Side of Goodbye
7.97.9 / 10 - Two Kinds of Truth
7.97.9 / 10 - Dark Sacred Night
7.97.9 / 10 - The Night Fire
8.08.0 / 10 - The Dark Hours
7.87.8 / 10 - Desert Star
7.97.9 / 10 - The waitingThis book
7.77.7 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.8 across 70 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 32% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Crime & mystery average of 7.6. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 7.8 | 70 | 100% |
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Crime & mystery — and a score of 7.7, the closest to this book.





