Japanese Fiction Sale!
 
 

Special Offers see all

Enter to WIN!

Weekly drawing for $100 credit. Subscribe to our Specials newsletter for a chance to win.
Privacy Policy

More at Powell's

Recently Viewed clear list

Guests | June 17, 2013

Jami Attenberg: IMG On Sharing Works in Progress and Outlining

2 comments By Jami Attenberg

Lately my life has been a lot of travel, on planes, trains, and in a station wagon that is so beat up I am pretty sure it's not going to pass... Continue »
  1. $10.50 Sale Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Middlesteins

    Jami Attenberg 9781455507207
spacer

Nine Dragons

by

Nine Dragons Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

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.

Review:

"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)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"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 subject. 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 (starred review)

Review:

"Connelly is one of the best living crime writers and the consistency of his work continues through Nine Dragons....The excellent Nine Dragons ranks high among Connelly's novels." South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Review:

"What would be maudlin sentimentality in lesser hands is hammered down to steely human drama. This is Bosch at his sharpest and Connelly at his most engaging. High-voltage stuff." Portland Oregonian

Review:

"[A]nother standout in the series that should satisfy all readers, whether they are new to Boschworld, occasional visitors or devoted denizens." Los Angeles Times

Synopsis:

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.

Synopsis:

When Harry Bosch gets word that his young daughter Maddie, who lives in Hong Kong, is missing, he drops everything to journey across the Pacific to find her.

Synopsis:

While investigating the murder of a Chinese liquor store owner, Harry Bosch gets word his daughter, who lives in Hong Kong with her mother, has been kidnapped. Bosch drops everything and journeys across the Pacific to a new city where nothing is as it seems.
back to top

Video

About the Author

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.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
Larry Robinson, March 23, 2010 (view all comments by Larry Robinson)
Definitely not one of Connelly's best. There are times when reading a Bosche novel that I ask myself why. Sure, I like the character, I keep reading them. But some of his stances and actions are just ridiculous. As a seasoned homicide veteran, some of the cliched dialogue and actions didn't ring true. He also seemed a bit slow coming to the conclusion that many readers come to rather early in the book. Reasonably entertaining, but I expect much more from Connelly.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
report this comment
OneMansView, January 15, 2010 (view all comments by OneMansView)
Never has Harry pursued a case with this much intensity (4.25*s)

Through the years Harry Bosch fans have gotten used to his grittiness and crustiness, his conflicts with police higher-ups usually over political expediencies, his knowing the layout of LA like the back of his hand, and his dicey romantic interests. In this story, Harry remains no nonsense, but the complex, reflective, interesting Harry Bosch gets trimmed back a bit in the interests of a fast-paced adventure – a perhaps less than welcome change to those who like the more colorful, in a way laid-back, Harry.

Harry has been pretty inactive for weeks in his capacity as a detective with the RHD, robbery-homicide division, of the LAPD with his gun-shy partner Ferras. But that abruptly changes with the shooting death of a liquor-store owner, someone Harry vaguely knows from the LA riots years before. The case quickly takes on more sinister tones when surveillance video from the store shows a lethal-looking man, identified as being a part of the Chinese mafia, or triad, being paid protection money just a week before the murder. His arrest results in a threatening phone call to Harry to back off the case. But Harry’s worst nightmare is about to unfold as the threat has materialized in dramatic fashion. He is sent video from Hong Kong from his thirteen-year-old daughter’s cell phone showing her being held by kidnappers. Harry is virtually certain that someone in the PD has a triad connection and has leaked his connection with the case. But he has no time for that now. Without hesitation, Harry is on a plane to Hong Kong, where he is met by his ex-wife Eleanor, a former FBI agent but now a well-known card player employed by a top Hong Kong gambling casino. Using the smallest of clues and all of the wits that they can muster, Harry, Eleanor, and her bodyguard/boyfriend Sun Yee begin a furious search in Hong Kong for Maddie, knowing that the window for finding her is closing rapidly. In fact, they are all on the very edge of survival.

The book is well-plotted with no letup in the pace. Harry says repeatedly, in the face of wrong, even devastating, turns, that he’s got to keep moving, and so does the book. And there are some rather startling, as well as sobering, developments in the case. In regards to plausibility, one can either nitpick or marvel at the high-tech evidence that is employed: video enhancement of the background in the kidnapping video, the recovery and use of a cell phone memory card, the raising of a finger print from a cartridge using EE, or electrostatic enhancement, etc. There is some timing that is conveniently coincident – it could have gone differently. But it didn’t and thereby resulted in a harrowing, gripping story.

As was said, this book/story is a bit of a change for Bosch and Connelly – action-packed may apply. From the human-interest side, Harry’s very emotional reactions and dealings with his daughter Maddie show both the unconditional love as well as the difficulties of parenting a teen-age girl. One can wonder where Connelly will take all of this in the future.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
gaby317, October 15, 2009 (view all comments by gaby317)
Synopsis:
The 15th and latest in the Harry Bosch series, Nine Dragons, opens with a murder of John Li, the owner of a liquor store in a tough South L.A. neighborhood. Having met John Li years earlier and during one of the most dangerous nights of his life, Bosch is determined to find Li's killer even if this involves taking on the Triads.

Bosch looks to Detective Chu of the Asian Gang Unit for help. Just as Bosch and Chu investigate the robbery and murder, they discover that their main suspect has ties to the Triads. As the detectives pursue the link to the Triads, Bosch is confronted with his worst fear. Bosch is warned off the case and his daughter in Hong Kong is kidnapped. Bosch must track her down without knowing the language or the territory.

Review:
Harry Bosch fans will surely enjoy Nine Dragons! His characteristic distrust keeps Bosch unsure of who to trust but when Bosch enters into unfamiliar territory he must learn to work with Detective Chu and his knowledge of Asian gangs. As Bosch delves into the Chinese immigrant experience and the world of the triads, Nine Dragons shows you both sides of Harry Bosch - the deeply committed homicide detective and the fiercely protective father. A fast-paced and unpredictable, Nine Dragons is an exciting and satisfying read!

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (October 13, 2009), 384 pages.
Review copy provided by the publisher.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 3 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780316166317
Author:
Connelly, Michael
Publisher:
Little Brown and Company
Subject:
Thrillers
Subject:
Los angeles (calif.)
Subject:
Mystery fiction
Subject:
Popular Fiction-Contemporary Thrillers
Copyright:
2009
Publication Date:
20091031
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
384
Dimensions:
9.54x6.30x1.30 in. 1.35 lbs.
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. Spooner
    Used Hardcover $4.95
  2. The Year of the Flood
    Used Book Club Paperback $6.50
  3. A Change in Altitude Used Trade Paper $3.95
  4. Rough Country Used Hardcover $4.95
  5. The Monster in the Box: An Inspector... Used Hardcover $6.50
  6. An Echo in the Bone
    Used Hardcover $5.95
back to top

Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Mystery » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Mystery » Sale Books
Fiction and Poetry » Popular Fiction » Contemporary Thrillers

Nine Dragons Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$3.48 In Stock
Product details 384 pages Little Brown and Company - English 9780316166317 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "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)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , "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 subject. 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."
"Review" by , "Connelly is one of the best living crime writers and the consistency of his work continues through Nine Dragons....The excellent Nine Dragons ranks high among Connelly's novels."
"Review" by , "What would be maudlin sentimentality in lesser hands is hammered down to steely human drama. This is Bosch at his sharpest and Connelly at his most engaging. High-voltage stuff."
"Review" by , "[A]nother standout in the series that should satisfy all readers, whether they are new to Boschworld, occasional visitors or devoted denizens."
"Synopsis" by , 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.
"Synopsis" by , When Harry Bosch gets word that his young daughter Maddie, who lives in Hong Kong, is missing, he drops everything to journey across the Pacific to find her.
"Synopsis" by , While investigating the murder of a Chinese liquor store owner, Harry Bosch gets word his daughter, who lives in Hong Kong with her mother, has been kidnapped. Bosch drops everything and journeys across the Pacific to a new city where nothing is as it seems.
spacer
spacer
  • back to top
Follow us on...




Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.