NINE DRAGONS
Michael Connelly
Little, Brown and Company
Thriller
ISBN: 9780316166317
There has been somewhat of a divergence of opinion concerning NINE DRAGONS by Michael Connelly, the latest excursion into the Harry Bosch canon. While some may disagree, I think this is his best book. It is certainly my favorite, primarily because it slices so deeply into Bosch’s personal life and at such cost.
NINE DRAGONS presents Bosch, an LAPD detective, as a bit pricklier than he has been in previous outings, although he has not reached this state without reason. Ignacio Ferras, his partner in Homicide Special, has been a lost soul since being injured. He leaves the office a minute or two earlier each day and appears to be street shy when it comes to the door-to-door work that is part and parcel to investigation. And as bad as this is, matters really come to a head when the elderly owner of a neighborhood market is murdered in his own store.
It turns out that Bosch had met the victim, a Chinese immigrant named John Li, some years before and has fond memories of him. Solving this crime and bringing Li’s murderer to justice almost immediately becomes an obsession for Bosch. David Chu, an investigator from the Asian Gangs Unit, is brought in to assist, which is a problem for Bosch since he has trust issues outside of his immediate zone of control. Chu accuses Bosch of being prejudiced against Asians due to his experiences during the Vietnam War as a tunnel rat. Bosch does acknowledge his prejudice against Vietnamese people and is not proud of it. Despite the antagonism that the two men share, it is not long before they have a suspect in custody. The culprit is Bo-Jing Chang, a collection enforcer for an offshoot of the Fourteen K, a dreaded Hong Kong triad.
No sooner is Chang arrested than Bosch receives a call warning him to back off the case, an incident that convinces him there is a leak in the investigation. But for Bosch, the worst is still to come. When he receives a video indicating that his 13-year-old daughter Madeline, who is living in Hong Kong with his ex-wife, has been kidnapped, he immediately connects it to Chang’s arrest. He catches a flight to Hong Kong, racing against time to rescue Mad and return to Los Angeles before Chang’s arraignment hearing. The account of Bosch’s time in Hong Kong, set forth in a section of the book entitled “The 39-Hour Day,” contains some of Connelly’s best writing ever: a fish-out-of-water, edge-of-the-seat read wherein Bosch, his ex-wife Eleanor, and Eleanor’s significant other, Sun Yee, race through the streets of one of the world’s most crowded cities, searching for a most important needle in an increasingly hostile haystack. Before their search is over, Bosch’s life and the lives of others will be forever changed.
Connelly’s vision in NINE DRAGONS is cinematic in scope; as with the best storytelling, the narration unfolds frame by frame like a film for the mind. He also adds some new dimensions to Bosch’s personality: some touching, others not so much. The result is a character who grows more realistic with each book. Add in Connelly’s trademark elements --- such as unexpected cameo appearances and bombshell revelations --- and you have an unforgettable and haunting reading experience.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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