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Monday, January 25, 2010

Nine Dragons, by Michael Connelly (hardcover, $27.99)

Maybe I'm just suffering from Bosch-fatigue, but Harry Bosch, Michael Connelly's bread-and-butter character, seemed too somber, whiny and imperious this time around. I didn’t start to enjoy the book until about the last third. On the other hand, I enjoyed Connelly's last book, The Scarecrow, the fantastical novel that featured the return of reporter Jack McEvoy, very much and was looking forward to this new Bosch book.

Harry catches a case with his gun-shy partner of two years, Ignacio Ferras: the shooting death of a Chinese convenience store owner, a man whom Harry had met briefly in Angels Flight. (This is typically and charmingly Connelly-esque: inserting characters from other stories into the current novel.) Harry carefully traces the clues and uses the most modern of forensic techniques (detailed à la "CSI") to help him find the killer. His conclusions lead him to the Chinese triads, alive and well in California. He believes they have killed the shopkeeper because he could not pay his protection money. Before Harry can put the nail in the coffin of a Chinese muscleman for the murder, he receives a disturbing video showing his 13-year-old daughter, Maddie, kidnapped and being held somewhere in Hong Kong, where she lives with her mother, Harry's ex-wife Eleanor Wish. After he receives a threatening phone call, Harry concludes Maddie has been kidnapped because of his involvement with the triad killing in California.

In a section entitled, "The 39-Hour Day," we follow Harry, Eleanor, and Eleanor's boyfriend, Sun, throughout Hong Kong. Since the Hong Kong police have declined to take the case, believing Maddie is playing a prank on her mother, it is up to the three to venture into areas of Hong Kong where two laowai like Harry and Eleanor stand out like big white sore thumbs. Improbable adventure follows upon improbable adventure, and Harry becomes more like "Dirty Harry," racking up the body count. He won't work as a team member, he bulls and bullies his way through the fragile opportunities to discover Maddie's whereabouts, he calls and abuses his U.S. contacts to get information.

I get that Harry's anxious and frantic to think that unspeakable things are happening to Maddie. I get the need for visual action drama in an action drama book. I get that there's a time restraint on finding Maddie and acquiring information to force the U.S. triad to its knees. But this is an extreme case of Harry gets what Harry needs when Harry wants it. I got tired of Harry.

At the same time I really enjoyed the meticulous nailing down of the clues to figure out where Maddie was being held when the video was shot and the unfolding of why the shopkeeper was killed and who did it. So, plot "A+," Harry "C-."

Now for a little spoiler talk . . . SPOILER ALERT
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Good riddance, I say, to Eleanor Wish. With the choice of some wonderful female characters over the years, Harry chose unwisely and unwell when he chose Eleanor. I also realize she was the perfect choice for a person as burdened and moody as Harry. She is what he thought he deserved, is my analysis. Her death will provide Harry with more guilt-ridden angst over the next few books, I'm sure. Oh, lordy.

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END SPOILER

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