Chasing the Dime

Michael Connelly

Average Rating 8/10 (2 Reviews)

A searing thriller about a simple wrong number that opens a line into terror...

Henry Pierce has a whole new life - new apartment, new telephone, new phone line. But the first time he checks his messages, he discovers that someone had the number before him. The messages on his line are for a woman named Lilly, and she is in some kind of serious trouble.

Pierce is inexorably drawn into Lilly's world, and it's unlike any world he's ever known. It is a nighttime world of escort services, websites, sex, and secret identities. Pierce tumbles through a hole, abandoning his orderly life in a frantic race to save the life of a woman he has never met.

His skills as a computer entrepreneur allow him to trace Lilly's last days with some precision. But every step into Lilly's past takes him deeper into a web of inescapable intricacy and a decision that could cost him everything he owns and holds dear.

'Chasing the Dime has the irresistible velocity of film classics like The Maltese Falcon and Chinatown, but with the extraordinary writing and style that have made Michael Connelly 'a crime-writing genius.'

Review by Jessica (300911) Rating (8/10)
Review by Chrissi (010103) Rating (7/10)

Review by Jessica
Rating 8/10
Pierce, a chemist who works in nanotechnology, has just bought a new apartment. Yet it seems somewhat empty - he only has a black leather couch and six boxes of clothes to keep him company... or does he?

Fifteen minutes after plugging in the new phone, he receives a phone call from a man who asks "where is Lily?" Pierce grows impatient as the calls from this anonymous person and others grow. Why should he know who Lily is? He’s only just settling down to a new life after leaving his partner, Nicole. Later he discovers that someone had been using his number before him. Things begin to link up and Pierce is drawn into the world of Lily. It quickly becomes unfamiliar territory to him consisting of escort services, sex and other indecencies. Suddenly though, Pierce finds himself playing the detective as work slowly fades into the background. This mystery has pretty much consumed him... but is he willing to risk everything he holds dear?

Connelly has a very good way of telling a story and knows what kind of plot will hold the reader's interest. I think this tale is rather good if you don’t mind the dull ending. You wonder who is Lily, then as things unfold you want to know more about her life and remain intrigued when it seems Pierce maybe getting on the wrong side of the law...

This is a very interesting crime book with strong characters and exciting thrills along the way. Hard to say much else about this book without giving away too much. Definitely read if this type of book interests you.
Jessica (30th September 2011)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 7/10
This is a stand-alone story, which is normally a pretty good omen for someone who has written a number of books ostensibly as a series.

To me, a stand-alone story means that something has sufficiently hooked an author that they move away from their traditional safe ground, and for me that usually indicates a really strong idea that I in turn enjoy.

Pierce is a chemist, working in the emerging field of nanotechnology. His relationship breaks down and he has to move out of their shared home and into a new apartment, which leads him to have new telephone number and address cards printed. Almost immediately he starts to receive calls from men asking for Lilly, Pierce is intrigued and quizzes one of the men, asking where he got this telephone number, which leads him to an escort web site.

Pierce finds out that Lilly has been missing for a couple of weeks and that a private eye hired by her mother has had no success in tracing her. Pierce starts to try to find her himself, working from the internet offices to the woman’s home, speaking to another female escort who worked with Lilly and finding that there is a sleazy network behind the web escort service that both women worked for.

Poor Pierce cannot leave this alone, ignoring work commitments is not something he has ever done but now he finds himself consumed by the fate of the woman on the internet. In tracing her he breaks one or two laws, and when he does find what could be evidence that a dire fate has befallen her, he has to lie to the police to cover up what he has done and deflect any attention from himself.

The policeman who takes over the investigation is thorough, and careful, seriously worrying Pierce that he will be caught in a lie and that the policeman will think that he has murdered the woman. It is here that the story falls down a bit. The policeman, Renner, is looking at Pierce as the best suspect in a case with no body, Pierce knows where the body is and has been beaten up by someone in an attempt to persuade him to leave the matter alone, but then the realisation comes that he is being framed and there could be only one way out, which is not the direction he wishes to take.

The ending is a let down. With only a few pages to go, and no end in sight, there it is! All of a sudden, the ending just pops out, leaving me with questions like how about this and that. It just ruined all the suspense that had been built up about how Pierce was going to get out of this very elaborate set-up. I’m not saying that it is not a good story; it is just that the ending left me really flat.
Chrissi (1st January 2003)