Rating: Summary: Easy Read but I like Harry Bosch Better Review: This is the third book by Michael Connolly that I read . The first two were Harry Bosch mysteries. This book is not. Chasing the Dime is an easy and entertaining book to read. I didn't make any connection to the protagonist in this novel like I had in the Harry Bosch novels but that's okay. This is a fast paced story.This is a book to read during a weekend, on an air plane, or at the beach. Enjoy it!
Rating: Summary: weak effort for Connelly Review: It pains me to say this, because I'm a huge Michael Connelly fan, but "Chasing the Dime" just doesn't cut it. There are two major problems. First, the protagonist - a research scientist - makes decisions that are consistently silly and illogical to the max. (Think "The 3 Stooges," or the two idiots in the "Dumb and Dumber" film, for example; unfortunately, this book is not intended to be humorous.) There are a number of turning points where, if he does only what anyone with an IQ over, say, 80, would do, the story is over. Second, this same protagonist is a manipulative, compulsive liar...not exactly an endearing trait for the character the reader is supposed to care about. In short, Connelly has created an unlikable protagonist who stupidly gets himself into one completely preventable crisis after another. Very disappointing novel. Also, very puzzling, considering that Connelly is undoubtedly one of the best mystery writers working today.
Rating: Summary: Great suspense Review: The guy is not too street-smart... his stupid mistakes get him into a compicated web of problems... watching him try to find his way out of it is a great read.
Rating: Summary: Wait for Harry Bosch to come back Review: My husband bought this book in an airport (very expensive) because he has loved the Harry Bosch books and I have liked them. He gave up on this book half way through and gave it to me because I'll read anything. I got all the way through (with lots of skimming). This book makes no sense. Maybe there is enough trauma in Pierce's life to explain his very nearly throwing away his life's work for what, at first, appears to be nothing, but his background isn't developed enough to explain it (saying it doesn't make it so or understandable) and there is certainly no explanation for his continuing and repeated stupidity. This book is WAY worse than Void Moon. Luckily, it looks like Harry Bosch is back next time.
Rating: Summary: Collect your Money! Review: "The voice on the phone was a whisper. It had a forceful, almost desperate quality to it. Henry Pierce told the caller he had the wrong number. But the voice became insistent. "'Where is Lilly?'" "'I don't know,'" Pierce said. "'I don't know anything about her.'" "'This is her number. It's on the site.'" "'No, you have the wrong number. There is no one named Lilly here. And I don't know anything about any site. Okay?'"So opens the very enjoyable and fast paced mystery thriller from Michael Connelly. Instead of being part of the great Harry Bosch series, which began with The Black Echo, Mr. Connelly spins a web of murder and deceit involving Henry Pierce and molecular computing. Personally, I would rather read more about Harry Bosch, but this one is good as well. Henry Pierce is the owner and driving force behind Amedo Technologies. They are in a race to create the first molecular computer-a computer that uses organic molecules instead on silicon chips. If successful, the possibilities are endless and will totally revolutionize medicine, as we know it. The project is named "Proteus" and seems to be the answer. But like artists of old, these new technology visionaries need a wealth patron to support their efforts. Henry and his team are just days away from presenting their breakthrough to a possible investor as well as patenting their creation. But, while he may be on the brink of financial business success, Henry's personal life is in shambles. His relationship with Nicole is over and seems to be irretrievably broken. And then the strange calls start and keep coming one after another. For inexplicable reasons, that he isn't even sure about, he feels compelled to find Lilly. Obsessing over this mystery woman, he begins to follow the few clues to her he is able to find. The trail leads him into the world of Internet pornography, escort services, and organized crime. Along the way as he digs himself steadily deeper with both the Police and his business partners, he begins to suspect every one around him. He jeopardizes everything he holds dear including his own life, to find Lilly, a woman he has never met and does not know. While the subject matter in this novel is dark at times, it does not have the melancholy feel to it that many of the Harry Bosch novels contain. Like Harry Bosch, Henry Pierce has his dark secrets, which do influence his actions, but he is more aware of their influence than Bosch is of his own. This is a lighter weight novel in style, mood and substance than the novels in the Harry Bosch series but is very good on its own level. While the abyss does not look as dark or deep in this novel, the work still showcases why Mr. Connelly is a great writer. His senses of style, pacing and character development once again work incredibly well together to set the mood and weave this complex tale. With plenty of twists and turns and a real shock in the last forty intense pages, this novel is definitely one not to be missed.
Rating: Summary: Here goes another night's sleep! Review: Henry Pierce is a wizkid who leads a cutting edge technological company that has just made a discovery that can radically change medicine. But the time he has spent on the project has cost him his relationship. When he gets into his new appartment he discovers that his new telephone number once belonged to Lilly, a prostitute that got her clients via the internet. When he tries to contact her it soon becomes clear that something fishy is going on and he gets sucked deeper and deeper into a web of intrigues and violence that may cost him all that his dear to him including his own life... I bought this book on the last afternoon of a holiday in Finland, intending to keep it for the flights home, but the next morning I had finished it. The book starts off at an enormous pace, it grips you and does not let you go until you have turned the last page. Wow!
Rating: Summary: Maybbetter not caught Review: Not the usual tight story line and involvement with the characters. I never liked anyone in this rather implausable tale. No one really caught my interest. Seemed like it was just stuck in Connelly's computer somewhere and got used a a quick payday. Not up to snuff, no pun intended, with the Bosch series. A rather boring internet sketch that never really gets off the ground. Even the supposed action ending left me in the dark and in the dark.
Rating: Summary: This is a uniquely good book Review: with this book, connelly is reconfirmed that he's really a versatile storyteller not just a writer who could only write something from a cop's angle. i've finished this book in two nights and mornings, and it proved itself an very interesting read. of course there are some parts that should be further deleted to become more concise, but in general, it's a highly interesting and readable book. there's one word printed wrong, "scent" was printed as "sent". a highly recommendable novel and i think that readers should also be like connelly, to be more flexible and versatile as readers should be, life is short, try anything especially the product is coming from a good brand, and connelly is a good brand, although some of his latest books were not as good as his early ones, but still, they were all readable. "easier said than done", that's it, folks.
Rating: Summary: I'm astonished by the negative reviews Review: I wonder if those critics who panned Chasing the Dime read a different novel than I did. Michael Connelly is a brilliant writer--one of my very favorites, right up there with James Hall and Dennis Lehane. His books are dark, full of atmosphere and fascinating characters whose lives impact the stories they move through. His works are not only successful thrillers, but like Lehane and Hall's works, also extremely literate. I'm always pleased to see a series writer write stand-alone books as well, and here Connelly moves away from his Hieronymous Bosch novels to introduce a new character. The criticisms that the protagonist Henry Pierce's actions are not well motivated seem absurd to me. Pierce isn't a Pierce Brosnan/James Bond superhero--yes, he is a genius scientist, but one who moves uneasily in social circles (he's just lost his fiancé through his own ineptitude in that regard), and furthermore one who bears an enormous burden of guilt at his sister's death--in short, he's more than a bit of a nerd (admittedly a high-functioning one!). When he tries to get in touch with a gorgeous girl on a porn site instead of the phone company, I'm not surprised at all. He comes to believe that this beautiful woman is in trouble and consequentially tries to help her--this is supposed to be unbelievable? I simply don't understand the criticism. The point is exactly that Pierce reacts in a way that most of us would not--it is that which makes him who he is, the guilt and the social awkwardness, and his curiosity. If Pierce were not the strange, driven character he is, not only would we not have a book, but Pierce would still have a fiancé, and his company would not be on the verge of a huge financial success, he would not have had to move out and get a new phone number, and none of the events of the novel would have transpired as they do. I found Chasing the Dime to be a superior thriller, up to Connelly's usual high standards. I won't discuss the plot details more, but the characterisations are well done and the storyline gripping and believable. I've not been entirely uncritical of Connelly in the past--A Darkness More than Night didn't work for me in spite of its wonderful title. But Chasing the Dime did, absolutely, and I look forward with great pleasure to Lost Light.
Rating: Summary: Chasing the Dime Review: I'm a BIG fan of Michael Connelley's but was very disappointed in this book -- the plot is so implausible. I didnt' even read it through -just cut to the end to make some sense of it-if that is possible.
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