Rating: 
Summary: A HIGH OCTANE TALE
Review: Leave it to the inventive mind of best-selling author Michael Connelly to come up with a compelling can't-put-down high tech read woven around computing and on-line sex. Following an acrimonious breakup with his girlfriend Henry Pierce has a new start, a new apartment, and a new telephone message waiting - but, it's not for him. The caller is looking for a prostitute by the name of Lilly, whose telephone number is listed on a sex for hire web site. Henry is a technological whiz, a go-getter whose company is about to make a major breakthrough and he's working or "chasing the dime" to raise the needed funds. He surmises that Lilly probably had his telephone number in the past, and he also guesses that she is now in deep trouble. Because of a past personal loss Henry feels compelled to search for and try to help the mysterious Lilly. However, some doors should never be opened because he soon finds himself in a vicious world that he could not have imagined in his worst nightmare. Readers will never suspect the stunning climax of this high octane tale, but they certainly will enjoy guessing all the way. - Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: A strong recommendation
Review: Henry Pierce, a technological wizard, owns a company which is developing a product that could change the face of medicine and earn him millions. After he moves into a new apartment, he plugs in his new phone. Almost immediately he is inundated with calls to a woman named Lilly who evidently works as an escort. Curious, Pierce decides to look into who this mysterious woman is and why she is not answering her calls. While searching for answers, Pierce must enter into a world of increasing danger and soon finds himself under suspicion for murder.
Superlatives after superlatives is how Michael Connelly's book have been described . This book is no exception. The strength of a Connelly book is the characterizations and the plot full of twists. This is a standalone and, in a sense, differs from any other work by this author. A strong recommendation.
Rating:
Summary: Re: Excellent reading
Review: This is not much of a review since I read this book several mos. ago, but I recall it as being very well-written, suspenseful, and up to date on computer-inspired mysteries. If you like good writing, use and are interested in the mysteries of computers and love good mysteries with great plots for their own sakes, this is a book you would read quickly and want to re-read--as I rarely do. Liked it so much with its intricacy of plot and knowledge of things computers can do which I didn't know, I gave it to my computer-guru son who probably understood it better, but didn't enjoy it any more than I. A+++ for those who love well-written mysteries with great plots and good characterization.
Rating:
Summary: My first Connelly Novel
Review: As the heading suggests, this is my first Connelly read. I enjoyed the story. It was well written, and not too predictable. This type of book is what I would call 'lazy' reading. It is not an emotional up and down book, and it is not shocking or that thought provoking. "Chasing the Dime" is an easy weekend read, to curl up in and just enjoy. Pierce, our main character, has some personal issues that motivate him to make bad choices, that bring him into the forefront as a suspect in a murder case. His obsession to find "Lilly" the escort who seems to have disappeared, is neither rational or intelligent, and is the means to drag him deeper and deeper into an uknown plot. Connelly gets a bit technical at times, since Pierce is chemist, and that is a bit hard on the head, but it is kept to a minimum; just enough detail to propell the story forward. Overall, I give this book 4 stars for entertainment value and ease of reading. I will certainly pick up other Connelly novels in the future.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Thriller - Well Done Michael Connelly!
Review: Chasing The Dime is an exciting, fast-paced and intriguing thriller. It is about Henry Pierce, a successful scientist who is on the brink of an important breakthrough when he gets distracted by telephone calls to his new apartment for a woman called Lilly. Henry has never heard of the woman before but his curiosity leads him to try to find her. When he realises that Lilly is involved with selling sex via the Internet he becomes determined to find out what happened to her in order to assuage some of the guilt he feels for an event in his past. The plot was fantastic, with lots of twists and turns. I was astounded by how much research Michael Connelly must have done in order to put the whole thing together - and even more impressed that he made it all so interesting! The characters were original and well developed and the ending was ultimately satisfying. I really came to care about Henry and what happened to him although at the beginning I was surprised that he would be motivated to search for a missing woman based only on a couple of wrong number calls, especially considering the pivotal point in his career that he had just reached. However when his motivations were revealed later on it made sense. Overall Chasing The Dime was a good thriller and an entertaining read: I read the whole thing in a day and a half. It was my first Michael Connelly book - but it won't be the last. Highly recommended. JoAnne By the way, anyone who likes the type of situation Chasing The Dime is about (i.e. a person whose ordinary life suddenly careens out of control and they find themselves getting in more and more trouble) should consider reading Derailed by James Siegel and The Analyst by John Katzenbach. I gave Five Star reviews to both as they are fabulous thrillers set along the same lines.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Harry Bosch novel.. What a bummer!!
Review: Michael Connelly is one my top five favorite authors, but this book was only slightly readable. It is not a Harry Bosch novel and does not live up to my usual expectations of Michael Connelly's writing. It is a suspense story of a nice guy in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone close to him sets him up and you begin to suspect it about half way through the book. The mystery remains until the end of the book when the bad guy and scheme is revealed. The story flows rather well and doesn't take long to read, but it is not a book that holds your undivided attention. Michael Connelly usually does much better!!
Rating: 
Summary: A put downable epic
Review: I started this book at Osan Air Base in Korea in August, put it down zillions of times, but finished in Jacksonville, Florida. Harry Pierce does dumb things for no perceptible reason. Connelly must have been half asleep when he wrote this thing. I'll wait for the next one, it can't be as bad as this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Read Prior or Subsequent Connelly Books
Review: When a fictional character does something dumb I usually have one of two reactions. I buy into it and let the story move on or I don't buy into and I keep thinking about the dumb thing instead of the storytelling. It was the latter that held true for me in this book. The protagonist motivations were just not believeable to me and I just could not get into this world that Connelly created. And truth be told, I was expecting a Harry Bosche book not a Henry Pierce tale. But that was only because I skimmed (I only read the dust cover after I finish the book) the dust cover and mistakenly confused the two simular names. However, after chapter 3, I realized Detective Bosche was not going to make an appearence in this story.
Rating:
Summary: Seeking redemption.
Review: One cannot really expect anything else other than a tautly crafted thriller/mystery from the works of Michael Connelly. When reading and turning the pages of his works, one has the distinct impression that they're in the presence of a writer in full mastery of his art form, a professional writer, a mature writer, who has worked years to perfect their chosen form of expression. Similar to great athletes, great writers make it look easy. Connelly's writing is effortless, gently pulling us into his tales, creating a tacit pact with the reader, where, it doesn't feel like reading anymore, but something else. ~Chasing the Dime~ is one of those reading experiences.
This story gets you started, keeps you going, and at the end, doesn't disappoint. I believe that most of Connelly's protagonists are, in one way or another, seeking some kind of redemption. Some event in their past continues to haunt them in the present. What seems to motivate them is the goal of reconciliation, a closure, perhaps forgiveness. In this novel, Henry Pierce is seduced into a world of taboos; the dark side of society, and what drives him into the sludge is not sordid curiosity, naivety or simple boredom, but an unconscious wish to change himself on some level. What the man has been chasing all his life, outside himself, could well be the wrong thing. Above the action, dialogue and intrigue in the story, is a man coming to terms with his demons, his past. Michael Connelly not only gives us an entertaining and well-constructed crime mystery, but something much more to think about.
Rating:
Summary: Superb! Connelly at his absolute best...
Review: Michael Connelly has taken his well established mastery of the hard-boiled detective novel and given it masterful and bewildering twists. Fans of this author return again and again to consume tales about the inimitable Harry Bosch, and it does not approach hyperbole to state that the Bosch chronicles are perhaps the finest detective fiction series in the latter half of the 20th century. While Bosch is not the driving force of _Chasing the Dime_, Connelly's mastery of his art is every bit as evident in this latest installment. The author wastes no time introducing the reader to Henry Pierce, a brilliant scientist who is the chief chemist and chief executive officer of his own research and development company, Amedeo Technologies. Pierce is a driven individual who, like most men of independent vision, spends more time in the lab than in any other area of his life. This routine, however, is disturbed when his long-time, live-in girlfriend leaves him and quits her job as the chief intelligence officer for Amedeo. Forced to pack up his life and relocate his residence and many of the comforts that he took for granted over the years, Henry is quickly installed in a chic apartment building on the beaches of Los Angeles. During the move, Henry is assigned a new phone number with an unfortunate pedigree. From the moment he plugs in his new phone, Henry receives call upon call for a Lilly Quinlan, who is clearly an escort of some kind. His curiosity piqued by circumstances, personal history, and the scientist's consuming need to know, Henry begins to investigate why Lilly is unavailable to field her own calls. What unfolds is as intriguing as it is plausible. Connelly has elevated the science of deduction into a high art form in this novel. The actions and motives of all characters, both primary and secondary, are realistic and credible. True to form, Connelly gives the reader reason to care about these characters and motive enough to dig and dig until the story unfolds completely. I can think of no stand-alone novel that I've enjoyed more this year that _Chasing the Dime_. Connelly has once again shared his inimitable talents with a large and well deserved fan base, and he has done so outside of the traditional vehicle upon which he built his record. I look forward to many more from this master of detective fiction.
| 
