Ballard: New streaming series based on Michael Connelly's novels

Ballard, starring Maggie Q in the title role, will debut on Prime Video,Wednesday, July 9, 2025. There will be10 episodes. This is the latest chapter in the universe of Bosch: Legacy, which aired its third and final season earlier this spring. Renée Ballard, a homicide detective who appeared in the Bosch: Legacy series finale, investigates cold cases in the Los Angeles Police Department with the help of Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver).  

This new cop show is definitely for fans of the Michael Connelly novels novels. Based on the six books in the Ballard series, which began with the 2017 novel The Late Show, the new Prime Video show will follow Renée Ballard as she attempts to solve several cold cases in Los Angeles. 

I really like the Ballard books, as well as Bosch and other shows, so I'm pretty sure I'll like Ballard, the TV streaming series. 

"Ballard continues to bring Michael Connelly's bestselling novels to life, following Detective Renée Ballard (Q) as she leads the LAPD's new and underfunded cold case division, tackling the city’s most challenging long-forgotten crimes with empathy and relentless determination. As she peels back layers of crimes spanning decades, including a serial killer's string of murders and a murdered John Doe, she soon uncovers a dangerous conspiracy within the LAPD. With the help of her volunteer team and retired detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver), Detective Ballard navigates personal trauma, professional challenges, and life-threatening dangers to expose the truth." 

Can't wait! Let me know what you think!!

 

REACHER, SEASON 2, December 15

Welcome back, Reacher. Reacher, Series 2, premieres December 15 on Amazon Prime Video. This season is an adaptation of Lee Child's Bad Luck and Trouble (#11 in the series).  

I love this show. Great casting, fabulous acting, terrific plot and action! If you haven't watched the show, start with Season 1. It's still available on Prime Video. 

The first three episodes of Reacher, Season 2, will premiere on Prime Video on December 15, 2023. The remaining five episodes will stream on Prime Video every Friday, with the finale streaming on January 19, 2024. I like to binge, so this will be difficult. I hate waiting.

The official description for Season 2: 

“‘Reacher’ Season Two begins when veteran military police investigator Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) receives a coded message that the members of his former U.S. Army unit, the 110th MP Special Investigations, are being mysteriously and brutally murdered one by one. 

Pulled from his drifter lifestyle, Reacher reunites with three of his former teammates turned chosen family to investigate, including Frances Neagley (Maria Sten); Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan), a forensic accountant for whom Reacher has long had a soft spot; and fast-talking, switchblade-wielding family man David O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos). Together, they begin to connect the dots in a mystery where the stakes get higher at every turn, and that brings about questions of who has betrayed them—and who will die next. Using his inimitable blend of smarts and size, Reacher will stop at nothing to uncover the truth and protect the members of his unit. If there’s one thing Reacher and his team know for certain, it’s that you do not mess with the Special Investigators. This season, get ready for Reacher and the 110th to hit back hard.”

THREE PINES: The TV series

Amazon Prime Video and Left Bank Pictures have begun production on the scripted Canadian Amazon Original Drama Series “Three Pines,” based on the bestselling Chief Inspector Gamache novels by Louise Penny. Alfred Molina will star as Gamache.

The series follows Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (Alfred Molina) of the Sûreté du Québec, a man who sees things that others do not: the light between the cracks, the mythic in the mundane, and the evil in the seemingly ordinary. As he investigates a spate of murders in Three Pines, a seemingly idyllic village, he discovers long-buried secrets and faces a few of his own ghosts. Additional cast members include Rossif Sutherland, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Tantoo Cardinal, Clare Coulter, Sarah Booth, Anna Tierney, Julian Bailey, Frédéric-Antoine Guimond, Pierre Simpson, Tamara Brown, Marie-France Lambert, Frank Schorpion, Marcel Jeannin, Georgina Lynn Lightning, Crystle Lightning, Isabel Deroy-Olson, and Anna Lambe. 

Louise Penny’s highly acclaimed, best-selling mystery series has won the CWA New Blood Dagger award, as well as multiple Agatha, Anthony, Dilys, and Arthur Ellis awards. In 2021, a reader survey conducted by The Washington Post named Chief Inspector Armand Gamache the most beloved fictional detective, beating out such characters as Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. 

“With Three Pines we continue to grow our slate of local originals, and overall investment in Canada,” said Christina Wayne, head of Canadian Originals at Amazon Studios. “The series will be our first locally produced scripted drama, and we are thrilled to work with Left Bank to bring these layered characters, unique setting, and masterfully constructed mysteries that Louise created to Prime Video. Alfred Molina perfectly embodies the cerebral and compassionate nature of Gamache, and leads a tremendous cast.”  

“Alfred Molina is one of my favorite actors and it’s thrilling to be working with him again,” said Andy Harries, chief executive officer, Left Bank Pictures. “His warmth, talent, and charisma are perfect to play Louise Penny’s much-adored Inspector Gamache. We are privileged to be shooting Three Pines, as our first-ever series in Canada, and bringing the originality and popularity of her incredible stories to a worldwide audience.”

Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders on Amazon Prime

John Malkovich plays an older more vulnerable Hercule Poirot in a new production of Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders. Although the script is based on The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie, there are some real differences. John Malkovich plays Hercule Poirot as an aging, sad, depressed, and forgotten detective. It actually works if you can leave aside the book and other actors who have played Poirot, and see this production as its own entity. Oh, and there's no Hastings! Screenwriter Sarah Phelps certainly takes liberties with the book, adds new plot twists, establishes edgy camera angles, and highly interpretive representations of the original characters (especially Poirot). There are also some very graphic bloody scenes. The actors, though, are first rate. No surprise there! Also, I'm not sure I'd call this production a fair-play mystery, and that's why I read Christie. So if you're looking for traditional Christie, you won't find it in this production. But, if you're looking for an evening's mystery entertainment, give it a try. Let me know what you think. Available on Amazon Prime, 3 episodes.