"Nine Dragons", by Michael Connelly

Book 14 in the Harry Bosch series

This is once again Michael Connelly at his best, a master at writing fictional police stories in a highly entertaining and captivating way. His protagonist one of the smartest detectives in the fictional world is Harry Bosch. In this novel, Harry will face numerous difficulties investigating the death of a struggling Chinese shop owner and will be plunged deep into the deadly world of Triads, a criminal mentality that presents many new challenges.

The second part of the story gets quite gripping when Harry's daughter is kidnapped in Hong Kong by the Triads, a last ditch attempt to derail Harry from his LA investigation. He must reunite and team up with his ex-wife in order to find their child. In a true Hollywood style script, Harry and his wife face the Triads on their home ground, where dead bodies keep piling up in the cities of Kowloon and Hong Kong. Harry risks everything to outmatch the Triads' ferocity. In the never ending action, Mr Connelly colourfully describes the people, the surroundings and the underground culture, a definite stimulation to the reader's imagination.

This novel is plot driven with plenty of action and numerous twists and turns some may be predictable but all are suspenseful. The dialogue is sharp and the narrative is concise and witty. Harry's character has been given a fresh look, a look of a super detective with the gens of a pit bull and the necessary attributes required to deal with the extreme situations encountered in this novel. This is a page turner, hard to put aside...