Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0316153915 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.93
Rating: 5
Summary: I'm astonished by the negative reviews
Comment: 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: 5
Summary: Fantastic!
Comment: After hearing so much that was negative about this book, i was expecting not to like it at all. I thought i would be looking at another "Void Moon" debacle, but no! This here's one excellent high-tech thriller. And its not even as if the high-tech-ness has loads to do with it, so dont be put off by that!
It's a really cracking story. Great concept...that your new phone number could previously have belonged to someone who is obviously now in great peril...
This book has a cracking pace. It moves really quickly, i finished it in ust a couple of sittings. The writing is great, again, as well expect from Connelly. The research is Deaver-esque and impeccable, and Connelly delivers his little scientiic tidbits in small doses and in a way that makes it all very very interesting to read about as a short break from the main plot. The characters are good, but most of them aren't developed brilliantly well...the only character with any real depth is the marvellous Henry Pierce, our lead character, who i'd love to spend more time with in a future novel. He's not quite Harry Bosch, but he's human, and is much more easily likeable at first glance than Bosch is...Indeed, he grows to be an incredibly likeable character all around.
Overall, i'd HIGHLY reccomend this. I raced through, found it really interesting, and in the end satisfying. Plus, i don't really understand how people seem to think that Pierce's motivations for trying to track the mysterious escort apparently in danger weren't understandable...to me, they were entirely believeable. But then, i guess this is a book you have to read and judge for yourself...
But, personally, i'd say this was first class.
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointing...
Comment: More and more, Michael Connelly's books seem to involve rather unbelievable plots and to require his characters to do things that are stupid, unbelievable, or just plain out of character. Why Henry Pierce, the protagonist of this new book, doesn't just change his phone number when he starts getting calls for a missing prostitute, is never really clear. Oh sure, Connelly attempts to provide an explanation in the form of a backstory involving his missing, then found dead, sister, but it never really rings true. It just doesn't successfully explain the obsession he has with finding the other girl, in the face of a couple of one-dimensional, paper thin bad guys who beat him up and hang him off the balcony of his twelfth floor apartment, or the impending visit of a financier who might be the savior he's been looking for, for his molecular computing firm. It's hard to believe that the main cop in the investigation puts his sights on Pierce, because, dontcha know, the Good Samaritan often turns out to be the perpetrator (I'm sure this is true, but it can't explain the extended harassment this guy gives Pierce). Then Pierce suddenly puts all the pieces together and suspects his ex-girlfriend must be behind it all (shades of Terry McCaleb suspecting that Harry Bosch is a killer in _A Darkness More Than Night_). It all rings false--something like the "idiot plot" of Roger Ebert, in which characters act in idiotic ways because the plot requires it, not out of believable motivations arising from their characters. Still, it was fast-moving and there is some interesting material about molecular computers and how they may change the world. But, ultimately, it's a real disappointment from a "master" like Connelly.
 |
Title: Lost Light by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0316154601 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: The Murder Book by Jonathan Kellerman ISBN: 0345452534 Publisher: Ballantine Books (Trd) Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
 |
Title: Four Blind Mice by James Patterson ISBN: 0316693006 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 18 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
 |
Title: Reversible Errors: A Novel by Scott Turow ISBN: 0374281602 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
 |
Title: The King of Torts by John Grisham ISBN: 0385508042 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
