Mysteries Galore.com

Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

April 1st, 2010 |

Author: Nancy

Reviewed by Allen Hott

Detective Bosch is back and as usual there is action, plots, sub plots, and just very interesting police mystery writing. In case you haven’t read Michael Connelly you need to know that home base for a lot of his stories is Los Angeles. And Harry Bosch is one of his main characters.

Normally Harry has problems with his superiors in the police department but this time he is having problems with his latest partner. Ignacio Ferras. Ferras was wounded on one of his operations in the field and that coupled with the new twins that his wife just recently delivered makes the guy want to stay in office. Harry has problems with that approach. Harry is a street cop. Harry vows to do something about the situation and little does he know that by the end of the book something will be done!

However Harry gets up to his elbows in other problems when he begins investigating the shooting death of a liquor storeowner in south L.A. Mush of the area is inhabited by immigrants from the Far East and this dead gentleman is no exception. Harry happens to have known the store and its owner from a previous problem. He feels indebted to the dead man and his family to find out who did the killing and why.

All clues point to the triad, which is a Chinese organization that terrorizes, kills, and generally creates problems both in China and the L.A. area.

Harry gets partnered up temporarily with David Chu, a Chinese detective who was born in L.A. Chu is a member of the AGU, which is Asian Gangs Unit.

Together they manage to apprehend one Chinese gentleman as he tries to get a plane back to Hong Kong. He can only be held for the weekend without formal charges so Harry and Chu start digging further into the crime and the triad.

Just as they begin Harry gets a disturbing videophone message from his daughter, who lives with Harry’s ex-wife in Hong Kong. She has been kidnapped and Harry immediately heads for Hong Kong to try and retrieve her from the triad.

The story gets more and more involved as Harry gets into Hong Kong. He meets up with his ex-wife and a security guard from the casino where she works. Together the three of them begin to hunt down the daughter knowing full well that she is likely to end up sold into slavery or butchered for her organs!

Connelly builds the action into a feverish tempo while he has the action going on both sides of the Pacific. There are many happenings that the reader will not in any way envision happening. Some of these are bringing in other Connelly characters from previous books. An interesting twist. And then one monumental happening that will affect future Harry Bosch/Connelly books. Stay tuned!!!!

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Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

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