Chasing the Dime

by Michael Connelly

It's a bit of a cheat this because I haven't quite finished reading yet. I bought the book because I usually like Michael Connelly’s [http://www.michaelconnelly.com/] books but this one is dire! I’m getting really frustrated reading it. I have The Lincoln Lawyer sat waiting - but this has put me off.

Previous books I’ve read by Connelly have been Harry Bosch books: The Narrows and The Closers (I think that I even read The Poet, but cannot remember the plot) and they have been fine. Reading books like this just to pass the time on a train, in a hotel or on the beach is great – there’s no pressure and a story line that is credible (ish) and goes at some pace helps me to relax.

All this is untrue of ‘Chasing the Dime’. The chief honcho of an advanced techno company (small company on the verge of big-time) is lured into a nightmare world of prostitution, porno web sites and killers simply because his new flat has the ex-number of a call girl/escort. Most of us would wait until the next opportunity (in this case ‘Monday’) to change the number and get on with our lives. But not this guy. Henry Pierce goes off on a crusade to find the girl and to ‘rescue’ her. He does the most unimaginably stupid things, even after having one of the best defence lawyers (yes he gets into bother with the police) secured for him. Things that you and I would not do – we would do ‘this’ or ‘that’ but never what this geek does. I’m at a point now (I will finish the book – I’m determined to see if I’ve missed a point somewhere) where Henry has found hidden keys to a storage facility and (as usual) instead of saying “hey Mrs. Lawyer woman – where do you think these came from?” – He goes up to the facility and opens the solitary freezer he finds there! Well, you can guess can’t you? The body of said call girl is in the freezer and he’s now shed all of his DNA/hair fibres/fingerprints etc. all over the place. He's been set up, but any normal person would have seen that coming.

It’s so frustrating that I’ve had to write this just to calm me down. If we’d been on holiday and I’d been reading this somewhere, I’d have had all the tea prepared by now (not usual when I’m reading).

David