Nine Dragons (Harry Bosch Series #15) by Michael Connelly

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Product Details

Pub. Date: October 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Format: Hardcover, 377pp
Sales Rank: 101

Series: Harry Bosch Series, #15
ISBN-13: 9780316166317
ISBN: 0316166316

Synopsis

LAPD Detective Harry Bosch is off the chain in the fastest, fiercest, and highest-stakes case of his life.
Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South L.A. neighborhood, a store Bosch has known for years. The murder of John Li, the store's owner, hits Bosch hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer.
The world Bosch steps into next is unknown territory. He brings in a detective from the Asian Gang Unit for help with translation--not just of languages but also of the cultural norms and expectations that guided Li's life. He uncovers a link to a Hong Kong triad, a lethal and far-reaching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the U.S.
And instantly his world explodes. The one good thing in Bosch's life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him and Bosch travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he's lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city's Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him, Bosch puts aside everything he knows and risks everything he has in a desperate bid to outmatch the triad's ferocity.

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

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.

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Biography

A former Los Angeles Times crime reporter, Michael Connelly�s familiarity with the seamy side of L.A. adds a steamy kind of street cred to his hardboiled, gritty detective novels -- especially his bestselling series of mysteries featuring dark detective Hieronymous �Harry� Bosch.

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9 Dragonsby sandiek

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November 22, 2009: This is Michael Connelly's 15th book in his series about Harry Bosch. Harry is a homicide detective in LA. He lives for his job, and for his 13-year old daughter, Maddie, who lives with her mother in Hong Kong, and who he sees every couple of months for a few weeks.

As the book opens, Harry and his partner are assigned the next homicide. It seems a routine shopkiller murder; the victim an elderly Chinese man who immigrated to this country with his family and opened a store, then expanded to a second one. Harry and his partner soon discover though, that this killing isn't as routine as it seems. The storeowner was paying a weekly tribute to one of the Chinese Triads, the organized crime gangs that operate in both China and the United States. There is a good chance that this was a Triad killing, as the shopowner had told them he would stop paying due to lower sales.

Having identified the Triad operative who collected the tribute and is probably the killer, Harry and Chu, a policeman from the Asia Group Unit in the LA Police, start surveillance, hoping to find a way to make their case. They are surprised when the suspect comes out with a large suitcase, obviously on his way to flee the jurisdiction. Harry suspects that the man has been tipped off on the police investigation, something that could only occur from the inside.

To prevent the man's escape, he is arrested at the airport. The plan is to hold him until evidence can be found, but then a new, startling episode occurs. Harry gets a video on his cellphone. It is footage of Maddie being held hostage in Hong Kong, and there is a message that Harry must back off on the suspect or she will be harmed. Harry drops everything and flies to Hong Kong. There, helped by his ex-wife and her new partner, a man who works in security, they race against time and the Triads to find Maddie before she is hurt.

Fans of the Harry Bosch series will not be disappointed. I liked the first part which showed the routine workings of a murder investigation. It showed the beaucracy and budget and political considerations that often hamper police work, and seems much more realistic than many books that portray everything falling into place almost magically. The book changes tempo as Harry moves to Hong Kong. The suspense rachets up with every new encounter, as the reader anxiously follows to see if Harry will be successful. This book is recommended for mystery and thriller readers.

Nine Dragonsby franellan

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November 21, 2009: Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

How far will a father go to find his daughter when she is kidnapped in a foreign country? How many rules will this father break in order to find out who was responsible for the kidnapping and the reasons behind it?

It all started with the murder of a Chinese Man who was paying protection money to an organization called the Triad in order to stay in business. When he failed to come up with the money for his every two-week payment, someone came into his store and took his life.

His family seemed upset, but don't let appearances fool you. Detective Harry Bosch and his team scoured the area, phone records, family history and more to find clues and answers to who murdered this man. But, his investigation took was halted when he learns that his daughter, Madeline, living in Hong Kong with his ex-wife has been kidnapped. Although she alerts the police in China, they do not take her seriously, and consider the kidnapping not real and feel the young girl is out with her friends and will return home. But, when Harry arrives in China he learns the truth about a lot of things about his daughter's friends and life in this country. Teaming up with his ex-wife and her boyfriend they scour the more dangerous places in order to find her.

Receiving a video from the kidnappers Harry tries to find out where his daughter is and hopefully find her alive. But, he receives a phone call telling him that he needs to back off and when an arrest his made of a man named Chang about to go leave Lax, the video message changes everything. Letting him know that that kidnapping was the work of a Hong-Kong based triad that does not want him to continue his investigation into the murder of Mr. Li the owner of Fortune Liquors.

Racing against time he flies to Hong Kong to meet Maddie's mother and hopefully get her back. But, what happens will astound the reader and Harry too. He is faced with more danger than he expected from these kidnappers who want to make sure he does not find the answers to many of his questions and before his suspect is released.

Harry reunites with his ex-wife and puts her in danger and the end result is horrifying.

Harry's relationship with his daughter has not been strong and as a result of what happens when he tries to rescue Maddie both of their lives with change forever and hopefully she will understand what happened to her mother and learn to adjust to live with her father.

Finding Maddie and bringing her home with him was the first step to fostering a stronger bond. But, she needs the help of a psychologist to understand that what happened was not her fault and dealing even though she seems to feel it was. Added to that when you find out who was behind the murders and why, you will be surprised. Keeping the reader on edge until you turn the last page, once again Michael Connelly has written a first rate book.

How far will a father go to find his daughter? To the limit and over the top and more.

Fran Lewis: reviewer

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Fact File

Name:
Michael Connelly

Current Home:
Sarasota, Florida

Date of Birth:
July 21, 1956

Place of Birth:
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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

Awards:
Edgar Award for Best First Novel for The Black Echo

* Michael Connelly's official web site

Biography

Best known for his dark police procedurals featuring the tough, complex and emotionally scarred LAPD detective, Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch, Michael Connelly has been called "infernally ingenious" (The New York Times), "one of those masters...who can keep driving the story forward in runaway locomotive style" (USA Today) and "the top rank of a new generation of crime writers" (The Los Angeles Times).

Consistently exquisite prose and engrossing storylines play an integral role in his swelling success. However, Connelly believes that solid character development is the most important key. As he explained to MagnaCumMurder.com, "I think books with weak or translucent plots can survive if the character being drawn along the path is rich, interesting and multi-faceted. The opposite is not true."

A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Connelly attended the University of Florida; there he discovered the works of Raymond Chandler -- author of many classic Los Angeles-based noir dramas such as The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, and Farewell, My Lovely. The cases of Philip Marlowe inspired Connelly to be a crime novelist -- and by studying journalism, he put himself in the perfect position. "I went into journalism to learn the craft of writing and to get close to the world I wanted to write about -- police and criminals, the criminal justice system," he told MagnaCumMurder.com.

After graduation, Connelly worked the crime beat for two Florida newspapers. When a story he and a colleague wrote about the disastrous 1985 crash of Delta Flight 191 was short-listed for the Pulitzer, Connelly landed a gig in Marlowe's backyard, covering crime for one of the nation's largest newspapers -- The Los Angeles Times. Three years later, Harry Bosch was introduced in The Black Echo, which earned Connelly the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Connelly has since won every major mystery honor, including the Anthony (The Poet, Blood Work) and the Macavity Award (Blood Work).

While Connelly has written stand-alone novels that don't feature his tragic protagonist Harry Bosch, he is best identified by his rigid, contentious and fiery -- but also immensely skilled and compassionate -- detective. According to The Boston Globe, the Bosch series "raises the hard-boiled detective novel to a new level...adding substance and depth to modern crime fiction."

Called "one of the most compelling, complex protagonists in recent crime fiction" (Newsweek) and "a terrific...wonderful, old-fashioned hero who isn't afraid to walk through the flames -- and suffer the pain for the rest of us" (The New York Times Book Review), Bosch faces unforgettable horrors every day -- either on the street or in his own mind. "Bosch is making up for wrongs done to him when he rights wrongs as a homicide detective," Connelly explained in an interview with his publisher. "In a way, he is an avenging angel."

Bosch is clearly a product of his deadly, unforgiving environment. "The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote that when you look into the darkness of the abyss the abyss looks into you. Probably no other line or thought more inspires or informs my work," said Connelly in the same interview. With each passing novel, Bosch looks deeper and deeper into the abyss; and readers continue to return to see just how far he will gaze.

Good to Know

Michael Connelly received a huge career boost in 1994 when then President Bill Clinton was photographed walking out of a Washington bookstore with a copy of The Concrete Blonde under his arm. Connelly remarked to USA Today, "In the six years I've been writing books, that is the biggest thrill I've had."

Real events have always inspired Connelly's plots. His novel Blood Work was inspired by a friend who underwent transplant surgery and was coping with survivor's guilt, knowing someone had died in order for him to live. The book was later developed into a feature film starring Clint Eastwood, Angelica Huston, and Jeff Daniels.

One of Connelly's writing professors at the University of Florida was cult novelist Harry Crews.

Connelly named his most famous character after the 15th Century Dutch painter, Hieronymous Bosch. As he told Bookends UK in an interview, Bosch "created richly detailed landscapes of debauchery and violence and human defilement. There is a �world gone mad' feel to many of his works, including one called �Hell' -- of which a print hangs on the wall over the computer where I write." Some interesting outtakes from our interview with Connelly:

"I wrote a mystery story as a class paper in high school. It was called The Perfect Murder. The protagonist's named was McEvoy, a name I later used for the protagonist in The Poet. Being a witness to a crime when I was 16 was what made me interested in crime novels and mystery stories."

"I wrote my first real murder story as a journalist for the Daytona Beach News Journal in 1980. It was about a body found in the woods. Later, the murder was linked to a serial killer who was later caught and executed for his crimes."

"Everything I want people to know about me is in my books."

Feature Interview

In the spring of 2005, Michael Connelly took some time out to answer some of our questions about his favorite books, authors, and interests.

What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer -- and why?
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. I read it in college and immediately subscribed to the idea of the crime novel as art. The book's evocation of Los Angeles and the social commentary on the city inspired me to become a writer.

What are your favorite books, and what makes them special to you?
I don't like listing or ranking favorites. I would say The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, The Black Marble by Joseph Wambaugh and The Underground Man by Ross MacDonald are very important to me because they inspired me as a writer.

I also have loved The Little Sister by Chandler, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Ask the Dust by John Fante, Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

What are some of your favorite films, and what makes them unforgettable to you?
Chinatown, Bullitt, The Long Goodbye (with Elliot Gould), The Conversation, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I like movies where characters are put into extreme situations and we get to watch how they react.

What types of music do you like? Is there any particular kind you like to listen to when you're writing?
I like blues, rock and roll and jazz. I listen exclusively to jazz when writing, because it is not as intrusive as music with lyrics and its improvisational nature is inspiring to me while I do my own kind of improvisation.

If you had a book club, what would it be reading?
The books of George P. Pelecanos because they would be entertained at the same time they would learn the social history of a place and time.

What are your favorite kinds of books to give -- and get -- as gifts?
I like to give something that I have read and can absolutely vouch for. Lately, in nonfiction I have given Flyboys by James Bradley and in fiction, Night Fall by Nelson DeMille.

Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you're writing?
I like to control my environment and make it feel the same no matter what time of day I am writing. So I have blackout shades and write by a single lamp that is on my desk.

What are you working on now?
I am in the editing phase on a book called The Lincoln Lawyer, which will be out in October.

Many writers are hardly "overnight success" stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?
I wrote two books as learning experiences before I wrote the book that was the first published. From the time I decided to try to write a novel until the day I held a published novel in my hands was about six years. But I don't think it was a frustrating or arduous time. I had fun writing. If you are not enjoying it, you shouldn't be doing it.

If you could choose one new writer to be "discovered," who would it be?
I just finished a legal thriller called The Lincoln Lawyer. I am now reading a legal thriller called Final Verdict by Joel Goldman. It will be out in January as a paperback original. As I am reading it -- I am almost finished -- I am really enjoying it but at the same time it makes me wonder at the vagaries of the publishing business. I know Lincoln Lawyer will get a lot of attention and a good ride. I think Final Verdict is in the same league, and I hope that it gets some of the same attention.

What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
Put your efforts into the writing. Its either on the page or not and it has to be there before you can even hope to be discovered.

From the Publisher

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Connelly nimbly balances Harry Bosch's personal and professional lives, both of which take a substantial beating, in his 14th novel to feature the LAPD homicide detective. Bosch, last seen with his recently discovered half-brother, lawyer Mickey Haller, in The Brass Verdict (2008), investigates the shooting death of a liquor store owner. While the murder has none of the hallmarks of a regular gang hit, Bosch discovers the dead man was paying a weekly protection fee to a man Bosch suspects is part of a Chinese triad. Even though Bosch is warned to drop the case, he doesn't take the threat seriously until he receives a video showing his 13-year-old daughter, Madeline, being kidnapped in Hong Kong, where she lives with her mother and Bosch's ex-wife, a former FBI agent. Bosch flies to Hong Kong to try to rescue Madeline, prepared to face down one of the world's most powerful crime syndicates. Tenacious as ever, Bosch is even more formidable in his role as a protective father. 10-city author tour. (Oct. 13)

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Nine Dragons (Harry Bosch Series #15) by Michael Connelly

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Synopsis

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Biography

Customer Reviews

9 Dragonsby sandiek

Nine Dragonsby franellan

Fact File

Biography

Good to Know

Feature Interview

From the Publisher

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Publishers Weekly

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Nine Dragons (Harry Bosch Series #15) by Michael Connelly

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Customers who bought this also bought

Product Details

Synopsis

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Biography

Customer Reviews

9 Dragonsby sandiek

Nine Dragonsby franellan

Fact File

Biography

Good to Know

Feature Interview

From the Publisher

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

Product Details

Related Subjects

More by This Author

Related Authors

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