Books For The Road - Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm a Harry Bosch fan. I started with one of Michael Connelly's Bosch stories and have ended up working my way through the whole series. Harry Bosch is an old school detective in LAPD whose sense of right and wrong get mixed up with his passion for solving murders. Nine Dragons is book 15 in the series and now Connelly has brought Harry together with his Lincoln Lawyer character, Mickey Haller.

When Harry draws what seems like a simple robbery with a murder, he ends up in the middle of a Chinese mafia-type situation which leads to his daughter, who lives with her mother in Hong Kong, being abducted. Harry hops a plane and tracks down the kidnappers but not without leaving a trail of bodies. Mickey Haller comes on the scene to help him out of his international legal dilemma.

I like the cadence and the voice Michael Connelly writes with but in this book he took me back to China and it opened up a floodgate of memories of our trip to China. The smells. The back alleys. The superstitions. I was glad when the trip down memory lane ended and Harry was back on a plane headed home. Books can do that to you. A good story teller can help you get a real sense of place and if you've been there, you'll revisit it vicariously.

The Bosch series is great if you enjoy mystery and detective stories. I haven't tired of the character yet although I'm afraid he's getting old enough to retire (which he did
prematurely and came back) so I may have to move on. It's kind of like seeing the end of the alphabet stories Grafton puts out. You know it can't go on. Or can it? Hmmm. Mr. Connelly do you think Harry could work as a consultant during his retirement?