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. Featuring ebook bonus materials including an in-depth interview with the author about writing "Nine Dragons," photos from his exciting travels while writing the book, and a link to an online promotional video.
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Donna Rifkind
There's still plenty of juice in the older but fiercer Bosch…It's tempting to look at Connelly's large oeuvre…as one huge, Trollopean vision of the way we live now, offering a swift, up-to-the-minute mosaic of contemporary urban life by exploring every corner of the criminal justice system, from ganglands to gated communities, from office cubicles to forensic labs, from boom times to recessions. Nine Dragons continues to broaden that vision through Bosch's eyes with an installment that's at once more global and more intimate than anything Connelly has published since his first novel, The Black Echo (1992).
—The Washington Post
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.
—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
The murder of an elderly Chinese owner of a liquor store thrusts Bosch into the unfamiliar world of Chinese immigrants, Asian gangs, and the ruthless triad crime syndicate. Bosch works the case with his usual tenacity; threats warning him to drop the case only fuel his desire to find the old man's killer. Having narrated previous Bosch books, Cariou knows the character inside and out. His portrayal of the iconic L. A. detective conveys all his irascibility and world-weariness. This book gives us a closer look at Bosch, the father, and Cariou conveys this human side with emotional clarity and believability. A Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Sept. 21). (Oct.)
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.
Paula L. Woods
Nine Dragons ignites Bosch's personal and professional lives, bringing them together in an explosive manner....Harry's feverish race against the clock and the international dateline...plunges the reader into a firestorm of danger and tragedy....To say that Nine Dragons is coiled tight with suspense understates Connelly's accomplishment in portraying Bosch at the cusp of a new world.
— Los Angeles Times
Julia Keller
A Michael Connelly novel is a thing of cool beauty, meticulously plotted, rigorously controlled....In Nine Dragons, Bosch's crisp, cold-eyed rationality is blown to smithereens. Stoicism goes right out the window. And the vivid drama of this contrast gives the novel its ferocious energy. Once under way, you can't stop reading Nine Dragons, and not just because you want to know whodunit. You want to know how Bosch is going to operate in a whole new kind of darkness.
— Chicago Tribune
Bill Ott
May be the most wrenching Bosch novel yet....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 subjects. 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
Oline H. Cogdill
Engrossing...one of the best in this series. Nine Dragons works as a gripping police procedural, an intense character study and an international thriller....Connelly is one of the best living crime writers and the consistency of his work continues through Nine Dragons.
— South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Katherine Dunn
Bosch is back...this latest appearance is a complex and meticulously crafted tale...packed with jump and juice....This is Bosch at his sharpest and Connelly at his most engaging. High-voltage stuff.
— Oregonian
Jeff Ayers
Connelly unveils his most personal Bosch story yet with this fish-out-of-water story. The pages fly...another Connelly masterpiece.
— Library Journal
Bruce DeSilva
Remarkably fine....With Nine Dragons, Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever.
— Associated Press
Nancy Gilson
Connelly is in top form with the Bosch tale, his 15th: the story unfolds with exquisite procedural details; unexpected violence; and increased insight into the stoic, jazz-loving, relentless, flawed detective who bears the burden of every case.
— Columbus Dispatch
Washington Post
"If at first encounter Connelly seems primarily an exceptionally accomplished writer of crime novels, at closer examination he is also a mordant and knowing chronicler of the world in which crime takes place, i.e., our world."
Los Angeles Times
"Though Connelly remains a master at detailing the intricacies of 'the job,' it is Harry's longing for reunion and connection with his ex-wife and daughter, the overwhelming vulnerability he feels as a father, that makes Nine Dragons another standout in the series that should satisfy all readers, whether they are new to Boschworld, occasional visitors or devoted denizens."
Chicago Tribune
"A Michael Connelly novel is a thing of cool beauty, meticulously plotted, rigorously controlled."
San Francisco Examiner
"With Nine Dragons, Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever."
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Nine Dragons is a very good crime thriller."
New York Daily News
"Scary, shocking and sublimely suspenseful."
Denver Post
"The Bosch revealed in Nine Dragons is vulnerable, a twist that makes him both deeper and more human...What remains most interesting is the new dimension added to the character - a man who has evolved over the series of 15 novels to become ever more interesting and real."
Nancy Gilson - Columbus Dispatch
"Connelly is in top form with the Bosch tale, his 15th: the story unfolds with exquisite procedural details; unexpected violence; and increased insight into the stoic, jazz-loving, relentless, flawed detective who bears the burden of every case."
Katherine Dunn - Oregonian
"Bosch is back...this latest appearance is a complex and meticulously crafted tale...packed with jump and juice....This is Bosch at his sharpest and Connelly at his most engaging. High-voltage stuff."
Bruce DeSilva - Associated Press Staff
"Remarkably fine....With Nine Dragons, Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever."
Bill Ott - Booklist
"May be the most wrenching Bosch novel yet....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 subjects. 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."
Oline H. Cogdill - South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"Engrossing...one of the best in this series. Nine Dragons works as a gripping police procedural, an intense character study and an international thriller....Connelly is one of the best living crime writers and the consistency of his work continues through Nine Dragons."
From the Publisher
"If at first encounter Connelly seems primarily an exceptionally accomplished writer of crime novels, at closer examination he is also a mordant and knowing chronicler of the world in which crime takes place, i.e., our world."—Washington Post"Harry Bosch [is] Connelly's usual hero and one of the great figures in contemporary crime fiction."—Los Angeles Times
"A Michael Connelly novel is a thing of cool beauty, meticulously plotted, rigorously controlled."
—Chicago Tribune
"Though Connelly remains a master at detailing the intricacies of 'the job,' it is Harry's longing for reunion and connection with his ex-wife and daughter, the overwhelming vulnerability he feels as a father, that makes Nine Dragons another standout in the series that should satisfy all readers, whether they are new to Boschworld, occasional visitors or devoted denizens."
—Los Angeles Times
"With Nine Dragons, Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever."
—San Francisco Examiner
Nine Dragons is a very good crime thriller."—Philadelphia Inquirer
"Scary, shocking and sublimely suspenseful."—New York Daily News
"The Bosch revealed in Nine Dragons is vulnerable, a twist that makes him both deeper and more human...What remains most interesting is the new dimension added to the character - a man who has evolved over the series of 15 novels to become ever more interesting and real."
—Denver Post
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