Spoilers!
What about Taken, but in Hong Kong? Enter Michael Connelly’s 14th Harry Bosch book, 2009’s Nine Dragons. Interestingly, Connelly’s book was released only 10 months after Taken dominated the box office and Liam Neeson’s gravelly threat to get his abducted daughter back and kill the perpetrators became permanently ingrained in the cultural zeitgeist. Bosch doesn’t like coincidences, but I’m sure the similarities — daughter abducted, a man with a specific set of skills, divorced wife in the picture with a new man, and the climactic scene occurring on a boat just before escape — are a coincidence. But still, I had fun with the comparison.
Bosch is a curmudgeon and a lone wolf who doesn’t trust anyone, not even his own partner, Ferras, because Ferras is jittery about untethering himself from the squad room after being shot in the line of duty (understandably!). When Bosch and Ferras catch a new homicide (as they call it), it seems routine at first. A liquor store owner shot and killed in his store. Robbery gone wrong perhaps? But then as they get into the case, they realize that Mr. Li was being extorted by the triad, a notorious Chinese gang with ties to Hong Kong, where incidentally, Bosch’s ex-wife and daughter, Maddie, live. If Li was being extorted, it stands to reason that the triad had a hand in his death, too. That’s what Bosch thinks, and that leads to Chang, the man who was extorting Li, and is also on his way back to Hong Kong, which looks suspicious after the murder.
Shortly after having Chang in custody, Bosch receives a threatening call from someone warning him to back off, and then later, a video from his daughter’s cell phone of her being held in Hong Kong. Obviously, Bosch hops on the first possible flight to Hong Kong to track down his daughter (sans any Neeson-like monologue). In the process, his wife is killed, and it was Bosch’s self-admitted fault (he flashed money and a hotel clerk set up a would-be robbery and it went wrong, obviously). But, Bosch is able to locate his daughter safe and sound. I figured the wife might get killed only because Maddie had been pressuring the mother to let her go live with Bosch in Los Angeles. Connelly has no qualms about killing after characters important to our main character, though! As it turns out, I was close with my8 thought process. Maddie’s stupid 13-year-old brain thought it would be a good idea to fake an abduction to pressure her mother to send her to Los Angeles on the basis that Hong Kong was too dangerous. Instead, the 17-year-old she concocted that plan with double-crossed her and sold her to the triad (or some other nefarious organization) to eventually sell her bodily organs to the highest bidder.
Upon Bosch’s return to Los Angeles, Chang is released due to lack of evidence. The case is dead in the water until a new fancy-schmancy scientific technique is able to glean a fingerprint off of the casing from one of the fired bullets and match it to a friend of Li’s son, Robert. Bosch interviews the friend of Robert’s, who seems involved, and is able to get him to confess. Essentially, Robert and his sister, Mia, concocted this plan, and brought in this third player to do the shooting (and deliver the threatening phone call to Bosch) because they were sick of their dad. In fact, Mia wanted to kill the mom, too, but Robert vetoed that part of the plan. Robert hated his father’s stubbornness over losing money with the liquor store business, and Mia hated her parents because as the daughter, she was expected to be their caretaker.
When Ferras, riled up by Bosch requesting a new partner, goes in alone to arrest Robert, Mia shoots him in the back, killing him. Bosch has another death on his hands, even if Ferras obviously acted on his own and stupidly.
I did suspect the children right away. Maybe I’ve read too many of these books, and in general, I’m primed to suspect family before strangers, even Chinese gangsters. The triad angle seemed like a red herring to me.
The red flags I mentally noted and which made me suspect the children:
- Robert was late getting to the scene of the murder, and even the next day, was still working because the assistant manager was “sick.” The assistant manager was the third person in the murder conspiracy.
- Robert and the assistant manager were acting scared at testifying against Chang for the extortion.
- Robert admitted to Bosch that he was sick of his dad’s stubbornness to pay the extortion.
- Mia’s situation as her parents caregiver was in and of itself a red flag and a ready-made motive.
- But also, when Bosch questions Mia, asking what will become of the liquor store, she says the brother will run it. When Bosch asks Mia if anything will change for her, she said, “I don’t know. Perhaps.” Red flag! Red flag!
Anyhow, this was a fun, lazy weekend read, and I enjoy the time I spend with Bosch, even though I don’t always agree with his ways or curmudgeonly attitude. But it was the same with Neeson, too. The main thing was getting the girl back safely.
Milam's Musings 