Nine Dragons-Michael Connolly

Nine Dragons
Michael Connolly
Little Brown, Oct 13 2009, $27.99
ISBN: 9780316166317

Fortune Liquors has been robbed and a man is down. LAPD Detectives Harry Bosch and Ignacio Ferras take the call. When they arrive at the crime scene, they find John Li, owner of the liquor store, dead with three bullets in his chest. A video shows Li making a pay off to a triad bag man. The two cops gather enough information to arrest the man, but he never says a word; at the same Harry receives a call to back off or else.

Harry is sent a video of his daughter Madeline, who lives with her mother Eleanor Wish in Hong King. She is tied up and gagged. Harry assumes the Triad knows they arrested one of their baggers, but no longer has interest in the Los Angeles homicide. He flies to Hog Kong where he meets his ex-wife Eleanor and her lover Sun Yee. They go to the apartment seen in the video, but she is not there. Finding clues, Harry assisted by his former spouse and her significant other searches for his daughter before she becomes another homicide statistic.

Bosch is married to his job and never allows anyone to get too close to him because they could become victims; Maddy is the exception. Two diverse groups want Harry dead, but his quest keeps him going even as attempts to kill him fail. Although panicked for Maddy’s safety, Bosch remains cool, calm, and collected as he searches for his daughter. With Mickey Haller of the Lincoln Lawyer fame adding to the plot, Harry is the old pre cold case Bosch as he works a personally hot case.

Harriet Klausner