Nine Dragons (Harry Bosch Series #14)

by Michael Connelly

Overview

After what seems like a routine murder investigation, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch finds himself in Hong Kong facing the highest-stakes case of his life: bringing his kidnapped daughter home.

Harry Bosch is assigned a homicide call in South L.A. that takes him to Fortune Liquors, where the Chinese owner has been shot to death behind the counter in an apparent robbery.

Joined by members of the department's Asian Crime Unit, Bosch relentlessly investigates the killing and soon identifies a suspect, a Los Angeles member of a Hong Kong triad. But before Harry can close in, he gets the word that his young daughter Maddie, who lives in Hong Kong with her mother, is missing.

Bosch drops everything to journey across the Pacific to find his daughter. Could her disappearance and the case be connected? With the stakes of the investigation so high and so personal, Bosch is up against the clock in a new city, where nothing is at it seems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446561952
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/13/2010
Series:	Harry Bosch Series
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	25,883
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 7.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Michael Connelly is the author of thirty-eight previous novels, including New York Times bestsellers Resurrection Walk, Desert Star, and The Dark Hours. His books, which include the Harry Bosch series, the Lincoln Lawyer series, and the Renée Ballard series, have sold more than eighty-five million copies worldwide. Connelly is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. He is the executive producer of three television series: Bosch, Bosch: Legacy, and The Lincoln Lawyer. He spends his time in California and Florida.

Hometown:

Sarasota, Florida

Date of Birth:

July 21, 1956

Place of Birth:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Education:

B.A. in Journalism, University of Florida, 1980

Website:

http://www.michaelconnelly.com

Editorial Reviews

"The Bosch revealed in Nine Dragons is vulnerable, a twist that makes him both deeper and more human...What remains most interesting is the new dimension added to the character - a man who has evolved over the series of 15 novels to become ever more interesting and real."

Denver Post

"With Nine Dragons, Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever."

San Francisco Examiner

"Scary, shocking and sublimely suspenseful."

New York Daily News

"Nine Dragons is a very good crime thriller."

Philadelphia Inquirer

"Though Connelly remains a master at detailing the intricacies of 'the job,' it is Harry's longing for reunion and connection with his ex-wife and daughter, the overwhelming vulnerability he feels as a father, that makes Nine Dragons another standout in the series that should satisfy all readers, whether they are new to Boschworld, occasional visitors or devoted denizens."

Los Angeles Times

"If at first encounter Connelly seems primarily an exceptionally accomplished writer of crime novels, at closer examination he is also a mordant and knowing chronicler of the world in which crime takes place, i.e., our world."

Washington Post

"A Michael Connelly novel is a thing of cool beauty, meticulously plotted, rigorously controlled."

Chicago Tribune

"If at first encounter Connelly seems primarily an exceptionally accomplished writer of crime novels, at closer examination he is also a mordant and knowing chronicler of the world in which crime takes place, i.e., our world."—Washington Post

"Harry Bosch [is] Connelly's usual hero and one of the great figures in contemporary crime fiction."—Los Angeles Times

"A Michael Connelly novel is a thing of cool beauty, meticulously plotted, rigorously controlled."
—Chicago Tribune

"Though Connelly remains a master at detailing the intricacies of 'the job,' it is Harry's longing for reunion and connection with his ex-wife and daughter, the overwhelming vulnerability he feels as a father, that makes Nine Dragons another standout in the series that should satisfy all readers, whether they are new to Boschworld, occasional visitors or devoted denizens."
—Los Angeles Times

"With Nine Dragons, Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever."
—San Francisco Examiner

"Nine Dragons is a very good crime thriller."—Philadelphia Inquirer

"Scary, shocking and sublimely suspenseful."—New York Daily News

"The Bosch revealed in Nine Dragons is vulnerable, a twist that makes him both deeper and more human...What remains most interesting is the new dimension added to the character - a man who has evolved over the series of 15 novels to become ever more interesting and real."
—Denver Post

From the Publisher

There's still plenty of juice in the older but fiercer Bosch…It's tempting to look at Connelly's large oeuvre…as one huge, Trollopean vision of the way we live now, offering a swift, up-to-the-minute mosaic of contemporary urban life by exploring every corner of the criminal justice system, from ganglands to gated communities, from office cubicles to forensic labs, from boom times to recessions. Nine Dragons continues to broaden that vision through Bosch's eyes with an installment that's at once more global and more intimate than anything Connelly has published since his first novel, The Black Echo (1992).
—The Washington Post

Donna Rifkind

The trip to Hong Kong is pure thriller material, giving Harry only one "39-hour day" to find his 13-year-old daughter, presumably kidnapped by gangsters to make Harry drop an investigation into their stateside activities. And while the Los Angeles case isn't half as exciting, it puts a human face on the way criminal triads function in immigrant communities. There's also something quietly gripping about a case that makes us consider the hard lives of people trying to make an honest living in a tough neighborhood.
—The New York Times

Marilyn Stasio

The murder of an elderly Chinese owner of a liquor store thrusts Bosch into the unfamiliar world of Chinese immigrants, Asian gangs, and the ruthless triad crime syndicate. Bosch works the case with his usual tenacity; threats warning him to drop the case only fuel his desire to find the old man's killer. Having narrated previous Bosch books, Cariou knows the character inside and out. His portrayal of the iconic L. A. detective conveys all his irascibility and world-weariness. This book gives us a closer look at Bosch, the father, and Cariou conveys this human side with emotional clarity and believability. A Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 21). (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

An apparently everyday murder in South Los Angeles takes Harry Bosch (The Brass Verdict, 2008, etc.) further and deeper than a case has ever sent him before. Ordinarily the members of LAPD Robbery-Homicide's Special Homicides squad wouldn't touch a case as routine as the shooting of John Li. The elderly owner of Fortune Fine Foods and Liquors has been shot three times, presumably by the same person or persons who emptied his cash register and the surveillance video. Telltale clues and the testimony of Li's frightened family members, however, suggest that their patriarch may have been executed by triad members when he refused to continue paying for protection. Unlike Ignacio Ferras, still spooked by the bullet he took for his partner, Bosch quickly gets his teeth into the case. But no sooner has he gathered enough evidence to arrest triad bagman Bo-Jing Chang than he's threatened with unspecified evils if he doesn't take off the heat. These evils swiftly assume malevolent shape when Bosch gets word that his daughter Madeline, half a world away in Hong Kong, has been kidnapped. Dropping everything to rescue the 13-year-old he's known for only a few years, he flies to Hong Kong and embarks on a bravura sequence of action set-pieces evidently crafted with both eyes on the movies. ("Oliver Stone will direct it!" Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller exults.) Nine corpses later, Bosch is back in the United States with Madeline. He has to get her settled and deal with her traumatic memories; he has to face the Hong Kong police, who think for some reason that he's a cowboy run amok; and of course he has to solve his case. After the exoticism and high intensity of his Far East adventures, however, theseanticlimactic problems are resolved with suspicious facility. A short-story-sized mystery exploded by the triple-sized dose of vigilante justice Bosch gets to dispense as cop and father.

Kirkus Reviews

Connelly is in top form with the Bosch tale, his 15th: the story unfolds with exquisite procedural details; unexpected violence; and increased insight into the stoic, jazz-loving, relentless, flawed detective who bears the burden of every case.
— Columbus Dispatch

Nancy Gilson

Connelly unveils his most personal Bosch story yet with this fish-out-of-water story. The pages fly...another Connelly masterpiece.
— Library Journal

Jeff Ayers

A Michael Connelly novel is a thing of cool beauty, meticulously plotted, rigorously controlled....In Nine Dragons, Bosch's crisp, cold-eyed rationality is blown to smithereens. Stoicism goes right out the window. And the vivid drama of this contrast gives the novel its ferocious energy. Once under way, you can't stop reading Nine Dragons, and not just because you want to know whodunit. You want to know how Bosch is going to operate in a whole new kind of darkness.
— Chicago Tribune

Julia Keller

Nine Dragons ignites Bosch's personal and professional lives, bringing them together in an explosive manner....Harry's feverish race against the clock and the international dateline...plunges the reader into a firestorm of danger and tragedy....To say that Nine Dragons is coiled tight with suspense understates Connelly's accomplishment in portraying Bosch at the cusp of a new world.
— Los Angeles Times

Paula L. Woods

May be the most wrenching Bosch novel yet....The jagged intersection between a cop's personal and professional lives is a recurring theme in many crime novels, but never has it been portrayed with the razor-edge sharpness and psychological acuity that Connelly brings to the subjects. And that's layered underneath the nonstop action of the novel's last half-the kind of full-throttle, blood-spattered narrative road race one associates with Lee Child or Stephen Hunter.
— Booklist

Bill Ott

Remarkably fine....With Nine Dragons, Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever.
— Associated Press

Bruce DeSilva

Engrossing...one of the best in this series. Nine Dragons works as a gripping police procedural, an intense character study and an international thriller....Connelly is one of the best living crime writers and the consistency of his work continues through Nine Dragons.
— South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Oline H. Cogdill

"Engrossing...one of the best in this series. Nine Dragons works as a gripping police procedural, an intense character study and an international thriller....Connelly is one of the best living crime writers and the consistency of his work continues through Nine Dragons."

Oline H. Cogdill - South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Bosch is back...this latest appearance is a complex and meticulously crafted tale...packed with jump and juice....This is Bosch at his sharpest and Connelly at his most engaging. High-voltage stuff.
— Oregonian

Katherine Dunn

"Connelly is in top form with the Bosch tale, his 15th: the story unfolds with exquisite procedural details; unexpected violence; and increased insight into the stoic, jazz-loving, relentless, flawed detective who bears the burden of every case."

Nancy Gilson - Columbus Dispatch

"Bosch is back...this latest appearance is a complex and meticulously crafted tale...packed with jump and juice....This is Bosch at his sharpest and Connelly at his most engaging. High-voltage stuff."

Katherine Dunn - Oregonian

"May be the most wrenching Bosch novel yet....The jagged intersection between a cop's personal and professional lives is a recurring theme in many crime novels, but never has it been portrayed with the razor-edge sharpness and psychological acuity that Connelly brings to the subjects. And that's layered underneath the nonstop action of the novel's last half-the kind of full-throttle, blood-spattered narrative road race one associates with Lee Child or Stephen Hunter."

Bill Ott - Booklist

"Remarkably fine....With Nine Dragons, Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever."

Bruce DeSilva - Associated Press Staff

Detective Harry Bosch returns in this police procedural to investigate the murder of a Chinese-American liquor store owner. Evidence leads him to a suspect connected to the Chinese Triad, and when an arrest is made, Bosch's teenage daughter is kidnapped by thugs who hope to influence the investigation. Len Cariou superbly voices the roughly seasoned Detective Bosch. Cariou’s grizzly vocals successfully invoke a range of characters—from the tender, caring parent to the aggressive cop. Cariou effortlessly switches between American regional accents and the soft tones of the Asian-American accent. From the streets of Los Angeles to the back alleys of Hong Kong, this suspense novel won't disappoint fans and should satisfy those new to the series. A.L.B. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2009 - AudioFile