Review: 9 Dragons by Michael Connelly

When a liquor store owner is gunned down inside his own store, L.A. Police homicide detective Harry Bosch is assigned the case. What seems like a cut and dry triad payoff gone wrong turns into a nightmare when Harry's daughter Madeline is kidnapped. Now Harry must fly to Hong Kong to save his daughter and return in time to solve the murder.

Michael Connelly delivers another thrilling episode in the life of Harry Bosch. This book is a perfect hard boiled detective novel. The Harry Bosch series does not waver from it's course. I like that he has not tried to change the course this series is taking.

I also like that the case is investigated by a detective and not a forensics gatherer. It takes a person with deductive reasoning to investigate a murder. You can not always rely on some crazy piece of evidence to solve the crime for you. Harry Bosch goes through the steps, he uses evidence gathered as a tool, but only a tool.

The ending of the book is quite good. A lot of novels have plot twists and surprise endings, but the ending on this one throws everything you have been thinking upside down. I was pleasantly surprised.

For those fans of Michael Connelly, there is an appearance of Mickey Haller and mention of Jack McEvoy. Connelly is currently serving as Guest of Honor at this year's Bouchercon.