Chasing the Dime

Rating:
Summary: Tight Connelly mystery a bit different
Review: This book is a departure for Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch mysteries. Instead of creating another tough protagonist who goes after the bad guys with dogged intensity, Connelly this time crafts an egghead, and makes him the good guy.

Several of the negative reviews here criticize the plot of the book, or the main character Henry Pierce. The main criticism of Pierce is that he's smart enough to design or fabricate the next generation of computer chips but stupid in the way he investigates the mystery he's presented with in this book. Obviously, the people who make this criticism have never hung out with genius or near-genius people for any length of time. Very smart people are often in their own way very stupid, and Henry is no exception, and a wonderful character as a result.

Henry's been working on designing these computer chips, and he's gotten so obsessed that his lady love has kicked him out and quit working for his company. He's gotten a new apartment, complete with a new phone number, and that's when the fun begins. The second he plugs in the phone, he begins to get calls from men looking for a woman named Lilly. All the men are at hotels, and Pierce soon figures out that Lilly is a high-priced call girl. At first rendered somewhat aimless by his girl throwing him out, he begins searching for the girl, not sure what he'll do if he finds her.

That's about as much of the story as I'll tell you. It has interesting plot devices, characters that are fun, and an ending that's interesting and intelligent, not to mention a bit funny. I enjoyed the book a great deal, and would recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Not Worth a Dime
Review: A friend turned me on to Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch detective novels. They are gritty, taut, descriptive, and darn good reads. When Harry does something "stupid" it's because he needs to do it, and he has the street smarts to survive and get the job done, though often at a cost.

Henry Pierce, the subject of this book, is just an idiot. He does stupid things, and you really can't figure out why. He's a research chemist, and a pretty clever one at that, but Connelly can't really dish up the reasons for his stupid behavior. I have to admit here that I tossed the book at the end of chapter 31 (There are 40 of the dreadful things). By that time I was praying that someone in the novel would take pity on me and just grease Mr. Pierce, but with 90 more pages to go, you know that just wasn't going to happen.

The USA Today blurb on the cover should read: "Unremarkable....Forgettable."

Rating:
Summary: two cents on the dime
Review: What everyone wants from Michael Connelly is another Harry Bosch novel. Connelly, instead, has channelled his talents on Henry Pierce, not Harry Bosch. What everyone wants from Henry Pierce is to focus on getting his patents filed (containing major breakthroughs toward a molecular computer) and to prepare a presentation for a major funding source for his company. Pierce, instead, has suddently shifted course and is consumed with finding out what happened to the prostitute who had the phone number Pierce acquired with his new cell phone. Pierce's co-workers are incredulous; so are we Harry Bosch fans. Connelly taunts us with cameo appearances of other characters from the Bosch series. We root for Pierce to file the patents and stop chasing the prostitute. We root for Connelly to write more about Bosch and stop Chasing the Dime.

Rating:
Summary: Frustrating
Review: This was the most frustrating read. The main character, Henry Pierce, is supposed to be a brilliant scientist, head of his own high-tech company, but he makes the most unthinking decisions and takes the dumbest actions. Where was his brain? Every five minutes I wanted to through this book across the room and shout, "You idiot! Don't you see what you're doing?" Totally unbelievable actions and a motivation that even when explained is a stretch. Of course, this total stupidity is what lands him in the mess that it takes his brilliant mind to get him out of. What's really frustrating is the book is still a page-turner. Not, however, one of Connelly's best efforts.

Rating:
Summary: Missed Harry Bosch, BUT......
Review: Outstanding story, complete and vivid and typical of Connelly's style. I still prefer a book about Harry, but this was as good a departure as The Poet and Bloodwork.....Keep 'em coming!

Rating:
Summary: Should've been labeled WARNING: A must-not read
Review: What a big piece of crap! Michael Connelly, one of the best crime writers, has all of a sudden lost his touch in CHASING THE DIME. I have to admit that there was rarely any suspense in the book from start to finish.

First of all, I could not bear not one bit of the trashy nudity, especially at the scene where Robin was undressing after revealing some information to Pierce. Aching with boredom, I had asked myself, "Are my eyes suppose to pop out like the way Wild E. Coyote does whenever he notices that another anvil is about to drop on his head?" and "Jesus, Mr.Connelly, what happened to your good quality writing?"

And as far as I'm concerned with Henry Pierce, he's a complete idiot. Throughout the entire investigation of Lily's disappearance, he approaches one thing idiodically after another. In fact, the way Pierce approached it was psychologically implausible. If he received so many annoying phone calls for Lily, then why couldn't he have gotten a new number?

Anyway, CHASING THE DIME is so horrible that it's not worth buying at the cost of a U.S. postage stamp. For all of you MC fans out there, I insist that you do not buy this book in the hardcover edition. This reads as an execrable movie.

Rating:
Summary: chasing the dumb
Review: In CHASING THE DIME, Connelly has committed one of the cardinal sins of popular fiction-- creating a character who is too dumb to make the right choices. How can a reader sympathize with a character who makes one stupid decision after another? I constantly found myself thinking, "No, don't do that," or "Just leave well enough alone." Hell, even Forrest Gump was able to learn from his experiences. Another major flaw is the main character's motivation-- why jeopardize his career at a critical juncture to find a woman he doesn't even know? Basically what is lacking is adequate psychological depth that would give this novel some real weight.

Other complaints: 1) There are way too many references to "chasing the dime" in the first quarter of the novel, 2) female characters and hit men are not Connelly's strong point, 3) the ending left some unanswered questions, and 4) everyone walks in at just the right moment to bring this novel to a tidy conclusion. A very unsatisfying read.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but....
Review: I usually stray away from the Harry Bosch series because i probably couldnt manage to keep up with it. But i do read his others. I read Void Moon, which i thought was absolutely fantastic, though others thought it was a disapointment. I then read The Poet, which I thought was rather boring and bland. Still recovering from Void Moon and wanting more of the same i picked up Chasing the Dime. This was the most intriguing of the other two.
Chasing the Dime has an awesome and intruiging plot. Connelly displayed Pierce's odd obsession very well. I was draw into it by that. I was drawn into Lily too for a little while until later in the story when Connelly decided not to expand on Lily and let me get to know her more. I began to care less and less as the story progressed. And when the back advertised that Harry would go deep into the underground of the porn industry, I was expecting lots of violence and darkness.
Instead, Connelly introduces me to Lily's escort partner(who's name I cant remember). And thats about it. Not much to rave about. One thing that interested me is when the detective came into the picture and got things up and running. Near the end I couldnt figure out who the bad guy was and it was all mixed up. The grand finale was suprising but not exciting. All in all it was great writing, but a little dissapointing.

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable - in a bad way
Review: Like many of the other reviewers, I've read all of Connelly's other books and enjoyed them all. As a tech/finance professional, the 'suspension of dibelief' that's critical for fiction was just not possible. The whole manner in which technology was addressed, company buliding described, wealth thought to be created, etc. - just rang way too false. I felt I was reading the glitzed up dreams of technology and wealth created by a naive 9 year old boy.

Stick with Bosch and McCaleb (Michael - why not bring Terry back for another go-round?).

Rating:
Summary: Pass on this one - stick with the Harry Bosch series
Review: After thoroughly enjoying all of Connelly's other books, I decided to give Chasing the Dime a try. Big mistake! The main character is just so unbelievable that I found this book very disappointing. The story line just doesn't make sense because the main character is supposed to be a very smart, experienced scientist. I'm not sure who would be so stupid to get dragged into this plot, but scientist Pierce wouldn't even have considered it! And then when you see who the "bad guy" is and why he did what he did, well give me a break! Connelly has certainly tried to weave intrigue and mystery into this story but it just falls flat. So stick with the Harry Bosch series where people actually act like, well, real people...