Nine Dragons

Customer Reviews

• The Best Harry Bosch Tale Since Echo Park!  Sep 1, 2009 (202 of 217 found this helpful)

  After disappointing Harry Bosch tales (The Overlook, The Brass Dragon) Connelly has brought back the Harry that hooked me in the earlier tales. Harry is still back in homicide (no closer duty for him) and during a slow night he is asked to investigate a shooting in a "rougher" section of LA. Harry and his partner (Ferras) grudgingly take the assignment and learn that a convenience store owner was murdered in his store. The case draws Harry's interest because he remembers the store and that the owner was once kind to him several years earlier. He assures the owner's son that he will catch the culprit.
  
  As Harry starts to realize that this might not have been a routine robbery but a possible execution by a Triad hitman. Harry starts to zero in on a suspect and then receives a threatening call to tell him to back off. Harry shrugs it off and continues but then his investigation stalls when he receives a video showing that his daughter (Maddy) being kidnapped in Hong Kong. He rushes off to save her realizing that if he is not back by the end of the weekend a possible suspect in the shooting will be set free.
  
  It is a tense plane ride to Hong Kong and Harry feels powerless because there is nothing he can do in the air. When he gets to Hong Kong he is aided by his ex-wife (Eleanor Wish) and her boyfriend. Harry has limited clues but through very good forensic science he was able to possibly know where to look for Maddy. It becomes a race to find Maddy because any delay could mean that she might already be dead.
  
  The tension of the chase is so tense you can cut it with a knife and the "determined " Harry definitely shows through. There is one sequence at a boat where the action is pulse pounding and the tension rife.
  The book also has a short but excellent appearance by Mickey Haller (the Lincoln Lawyer and Harry's half brother) and there are references to Jack McEvoy (Connelly's other main character). As long as Mr. Connelly can deliver Harry Bosch tales of this caliber, Harry will continue to be one of the most intriguing law enforcement figures in fiction today!
  

• A terrific story  Sep 21, 2009 (34 of 39 found this helpful)

  Nine Dragons starts with the murder of a Chinese shopkeeper in LA. Evidence connected to the murder makes LAPD Detective Harry Bosch suspect that triads were involved. Triads are vicious, powerful Chinese gangs, whose tentacles are everywhere, so Bosch turns to LAPD's Asian Gangs Unit for background information on triad activity in LA, and an ethnic-Chinese detective from the AGU is assigned to help out with the case. There is some immediate friction between the Chinese detective and Bosch, so when mysterious events threaten to derail the murder investigation, it's easy for Bosch to suspect that there's a leak somewhere in the LAPD, probably within the AGU itself.
  
  But all that is put on the backburner when someone from Bosch's own family is kidnapped in Hong Kong, apparently by the same triad implicated in the shopkeeper's murder. The kidnappers' message is clear: BACK OFF! And that's when things really get interesting.
  
  Connelly takes numerous threads and weaves them together to create a terrific story. The main thread, of course, is Bosch's desperate search for his kidnapped family-member; but interwoven with that is the murder investigation that preceded the kidnapping, with Connelly doing a fine job detailing the methodical, step-by-step investigative process, including some interesting developments in forensic science. And Bosch's attempt to discover the source of the leak that threatens to sabotage his murder investigation is interwoven with the personal friction developing between Bosch, his partner, and the Chinese detective from the AGU. Connelly weaves the various threads together to form an apparently satisfactory solution to all those puzzles, but an unexpected plot twist right at the end shows how misleading superficial appearances can be. The final clues change everything and lead Bosch to a conclusion that is simply stunning.
  
  Nine Dragons is a terrific story, told by a real master.

• Outstanding in every way!  Sep 23, 2009 (29 of 34 found this helpful)

  
  I've long been a Connelly fan, especially of the Harry Bosch series. But I have to tell you, Connelly's surpassed himself with this one. As I've thought about it, I think this may well be the best Bosch book ever.
  
  I won't rehash the whole story line here, as you can see that in the two other member reviews already up, and on the product page. Instead, I'd like to focus on why I've made such a grandiose statement.
  
  The Bosch series is long-running and deservedly very successful. Of course, it's had its ups and downs; all series do. But Bosch is an iconic character from the Clint Eastwood mold of Dirty Harry and the Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns: the loner who battles through any obstacles to see right prevail and justice triumph, even if he has to break the rules. Eastwood's made a career of this, as has Connelly. That's a good thing. I like that kind of entertainment, as do a whole lot of other people, obviously.
  
  However, in this book Connelly breaks new ground for the character, exploring an emotional vulnerability - his love for his daughter, and how it animates him - that we haven't seen before. It's the driving force of the story, and to continue the Eastwood analogy, it's the same variance on a "trademark" character we saw Eastwood explore in some of his amazing later works like "Unforgiven", "Million Dollar Baby", and "Gran Torino".
  
  Connelly also takes Bosch into an exotic and fascinating new locale: Hong Kong. This is really a treat, and he does it very well. I'd have liked to have seen even more of his take on the area, as I know it well, having been there many times, but take it from me: what you do see is a really accurate portrayal of one of the world's truly unique locales.
  
  The story moves forward in a very driving yet well-disciplined fashion; very exciting; intellectually stimulating, and well- and throroughly-plotted.
  
  Six stars! But I guess I'll have to settle for five.
  
  

• Not Up To Standards  Oct 25, 2009 (15 of 18 found this helpful)

  In his latest thriller featuring LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, author Michael Connelly branches out into international waters. The plot involves Bosch investigating a murder of the Asian owner of a liquor store in South-Central LA. For translating purposes, Bosch calls in an Asian Detective, Chu, to help with the case. What unfolds appears to be a Asian Triad gang related extortion/murder. Meanwhile, Bosch's teenaged daughter is living in Hong Kong with her mother, who works for a swanky Hong Kong casino. After arresting a suspect, Bosch is warned to back off the case or eles "there will be consequences". Well, he soon receives a video on his phone showing his daughter being held hostage in Hong Kong. Is there a leak in the department? Is Chu playing both sides of the fence? Bosch drops everything to rush to Hong Kong to try to find his daughter. Similarities with the movie "Taken" are obvious. This is where the story starts to become somewhat far-fetched. The way he is able to find his daughter is somewhat ridiculous and things are written with a by-the-numbers predictibility. I'm not going to get into details but the ending is rather lame and unsatisfying and I look forward to a better effort from Connelly next time.

• Connelly misses it big this time  Nov 3, 2009 (6 of 6 found this helpful)

  I read all of Michael Connelly's novels and his one non-fiction entry "Crime Beat". On the whole, Connelly hits it out of the park most of the time with his gruff Detective Harry Bosch of the LAPD who seems to have been dealing with an existential crisis his entire life, perhaps rooted in his experience as a "tunnel rat" in the Vietnam Conflict. Harry must be into his sixties by now. But he labors on, cynical, focused on his police work. He has a 13 year old daughter in Hong Kong he didn't know existed until a few years ago. His half-brother is Connelly's other great invention, Mickey Haller, the criminal attorney who works out of the backseat of his Lincolon Towncar.
  
  Connelly's work runs from excellent to the occasional very good - until now.
  
  "9 Dragons" is the worst Harry Bosch adventure I've read to date. Only Connelly's fine writing saves it from being cast into the "put it down unfinished" category.
  
  The plot starts out conventionally enough: Harry and his partner Ignacio Ferras are called to handle a homicide out of their normal territory. Harry has been having problems with Ferras who seems to have lost his desire to work outside the office since being shot a couple of years ago. The murder, conveniently enough, happens to be of the owner of a liquor store, a matchbook from which Harry has carried in his pocket for ten or more years. Stop and think about that for a moment: a matchbook surviving ten years of being carried in a pocket for a decade or more? It is only the first of an army of plot problems that attack the reader.
  
  I recognize that there are people who may find "9 Dragons" to be excellent when they get around to reading it, so I am not going to reveal any of the plot twists - and there are plenty and plenty and plenty again. There have to be, because each plot twist traps Connelly into either forgetting about it or trying to write his way out of it. He chooses the latter and just digs himself in deeper with one unbelievable, implausible plot twist after another.
  
  By the time I was about a quarter or maybe a third of the way into this, I started thinking about just putting it down and calling it quits. But Connelly hasn't lost his ability to write and I kept with it. But every other page, silent expletives were crossing my mind as the plot became more and more unbelievable.
  
  If I were discussing this book with people who already read it, I am certain we'd be comparing analogies of how far our jaws dropped in disbelief at particular points in the book.
  
  Connelly manages a triple-climax and each of them is either predictable or utterly implausible.
  
  I hate to say it, but I think Harry Bosch has reached the end of the road, unless Connelly starts spinning tales of Harry's youth. Harry Bosch is simply too old to be believable as an "action hero" and his personal situation is now too restrictive to permit Harry the freedom of action he's accustomed to enjoying.
  
  Finally, Connelly has run out of steam with the Bosch character. He is no longer the intuitive detective he was: now he relies on all-too-frequent flashes of brilliant inspiration or just blasts ahead thoughtlessly. Neither approach is believable.
  
  Overall, this stalwart fan of Harry Bosch (and Mickey Haller) is very disappointed. I don't think Harry Bosch is going to make it to another novel. Hopefully Connelly will now turn his attention to Mickey Haller and return to his prime.
  
  Jerry