Catherine Raynes: The Waiting and The House We Grew Up In

The Waiting by Michael Connelly  

In cold cases, it’s not the hope that kills you. It’s the waiting. 

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-four, so the genetic link must be familial: His father 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 ammunition to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her mission draws her into unexpected danger. With no choice but to go outside the department for help, she knocks on the door of Harry Bosch. 

At the same time, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit: Bosch’s daughter Maddie, now a patrol officer. But Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city’s library of lost souls—a case that may be the most iconic in the city’s history. 

  

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell  

When a tragedy breaks a family apart, what can bring it back together? 

The Birds seem to be the perfect family: mother, father, four children, a picture-book cottage in the country. 

But one Easter weekend, something happens - something so unexpected, so devastating, that no one can bring themselves to talk about it. 

The family shatters, seemingly for good. 

Until, years later, they are forced to return to the house they grew up in, and to confront what really broke the family apart... 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from NEWSTALKSTB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Twenty to twelve one News Talks v You with Jack Tayne.
This morning, Captain Rains our book reviewers here with her
two picks for the long weekend to Catherine Morning Jack.
So let's begin with The Waiting by Michael Connelly.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
So this is the sixth in a spin off series
he has about Renee Ballad, and it's a spin off
of the Harry Bosch stories. And Harry makes an appearance
in this and Rene's a volunteer in the in the
LA Department's open so open unsolved unit, and Harry's now
in his seventies and he's dealing with some serious health issues,
but him and Ballad are still friends. And the book

(00:49):
also brings in Bosher's daughter, Maddie, wo's an LAPD officer.
And in The Waiting there are three major investigations at play,
beginning with when Rene's out surfing and she returns to
her car and discovers her department badge, gun, and ID
card have been stolen while she's been out on the water,
and that presents all sorts of problems for her. She'll

(01:09):
take serious heat if she reports the theft, and so
she decides that there's only one option, and that's to
turn to Harry to help her track down her valuables
and catch the guy who took them. And at the
same time, the open unsolved unit has uncovered this fresh
evidence suggesting that a long dominant serial killer, a guy
called the Pillowcase rapist, could be a superior court judge.

(01:30):
And of course that case requires some very delicate handling
and will put her unit in the whole department, right
in the spotlight. And then Harry's daughter, Maddie, who's a
patrol officer as I mentioned, joins the team after stumbling
on some explosive evidence relating to this black Dahlia killing
back in nineteen forty seven. And it's one of the
most famous unsolved bidders in the history of Los Angeles.

(01:51):
So you get all of these investigations going on and
all of these things going in, these subplots and investigations,
and it's really vintage Colonie with those great subplots and
lots of suspense and the stories all tying together. And yeah,
he takes you deep in and it's a read of
course from Michael colony.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, of course, of course. Okay, that's The Waiting by
Michael Thornley. Next up The House We Grew Up In
by Lisa Juwele.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
So this follows the Bird family through the years and
alluding to why they might be also estranged with each other.
And it's set partially in the present day and partially
in the past and spans thirty years, and those intervening
years are told on alternative chapters by members of the
Bird family, and each are fighting their own demons to
build up this picture of the past. And then the
first time you go right back to the beginning of

(02:37):
their story, to this very sunny Easter Sunday in nineteen
eighty one, this Cotsweld College, full of love and laughter,
and then all of a sudden you're in the present
day where they're back together again for the first time
in years, and there's the guilt and separation and bitterness
and you know what tore them apart in this heartbreak
and secrets. And the story mainly follows the mother, Lorelei

(02:58):
and her daughter Megan Bird the most and laure in
her children's eyes, was full of love and surprises, but
there's lots of red flags in the air, so she
wants to keep every single piece of her children's art,
and then she keeps items that are broken and useless,
and all of a sudden, her collections become piles of
stuff and more stuff, and the house that they grew
up and is no longer the house that they remember.
And is Meghan, who tries to be the exact opposite

(03:20):
of her mum, who hoards, and she lives in this
home that's spotless, without any clatteral mess. And then there's Death,
who's often invisible as the middle daughter, and she's on
this constant journey to find herself. And there's a study
and how tragedy affects everyone differently and causes these ripple
effects that take years to recover from. And so you
have the story that deals with death and trauma and
mental illness, but most of all about relationships and about

(03:42):
family and what ties them all together.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Oh super okay, that sounds really good, Thank you very much, Catherine.
That's The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Juwell,
Catherine's first book. The latest one from Michael Connolly is
The Waiting And if you're wondering about either of those,
all of the information about those books will be at Newstorks.
He'd b dot co dot nz Ford slash Jack.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or
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