 First edition | |
| Author | Michael Connelly |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Crime, Mystery novel |
| Publisher | Little, Brown & Co. |
Publication date | November 2002 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | 0-7528-2141-5 |
| OCLC | 50494548 |
Chasing the Dime is a 2002 novel by American crime-writer Michael Connelly. It is his twelfth novel overall, and the only one to feature protagonist Henry Pierce.
The story is told in third-person narrative.
Henry Pierce's nanotechnology company is racing to be the first to create a molecular computer that can fight disease. He and his partner Charlie Condon are preparing an investor presentation. Having also recently been dumped by his girlfriend, Nicole, he begins investigating an unexplained series of phone calls from men looking for "Lilly" to distract himself. After getting the name of a website from a caller, Pierce finds that Lilly is a marketed escort who last had Pierce's new number. He calls another escort, Robin, who says she hasn't seen her. Finding the company that hosts the site and the owner's name, Billy Wentz, Pierce visits its office. He social engineers a secretary and a post worker for Lilly's address. He finds no sign of her there and enlists his friend Cody Zeller, a white hat hacker, to investigate Wentz.
Pierce meets with and bribes Robin, who warns him that Wentz and his boss "Grady" are dangerous, and directs Pierce to Lilly's spare apartment, where he finds a bloody mattress. At the police station, Detective Bob Renner questions Pierce as a suspect. After leaving, Pierce suspects police searched his car. The next day, he meets a P.I. who last investigated Lilly's disappearance. He urges Pierce to back off. At his apartment, Pierce is accosted by two men. One beats him before the larger one, "Six-Eight", dangles him from the twelfth story balcony. The smaller man, Wentz, demands he stay away. While hospitalized, Renner questions a drugged Pierce and records an incriminating statement, forcing Pierce to seek a lawyer. Days later, his presentation wins a major investor, though he grows paranoid when he finds an unfamiliar key in his bag for a storage unit bought under his name. Visiting it, he finds Lilly's frozen corpse. Realizing that he is being framed, he hides the body.
Believing that Nicole, once an employee at Pierce's company, is colluding with rivals, Pierce goes to her house. She denies it and, in a heated moment, the two briefly have sex before she kicks him out. Pierce visits Robin (real name Lucy) to apologize. She tells him Grady's car was at Lilly's house when she disappeared. Recognizing the car as Zeller's, Pierce works with Renner to bait Zeller into his work's laboratory and get a confession. That night, after being locked in, Zeller admits that big names in the pharmaceutical industry paid him to sabotage Pierce's project, and that he targeted Lilly knowing Pierce would want to atone for the death of his sister, an escort that was murdered. Before Renner can arrest him, Wentz and Six-Eight arrive and a shootout ensues, killing Six-Eight and Zeller. Pierce turns off the voice-activated lights, grabs a hidden gun off Zeller, and hides. When Wentz finds him, Pierce reactivates the lights and shoots him twice in the head, killing him. He finds Renner wounded and calls for backup. In the aftermath, Pierce discusses with Condon their next steps now that their project has been greenlit, and seeks to make amends with Nicole.
Pierce's sister Isabelle was a victim of the Dollmaker, a serial killer that was shot and killed by Harry Bosch in The Concrete Blonde (1994). Janis Langwiser also advised Bosch in Angel's Flight (1999). Detective Bob Renner later works alongside Bosch in the Open-Unsolved Unit in The Closers (2005). The adult website that Wentz runs, "LA-Darlings," is mentioned as being used by another character in The Lincoln Lawyer (2005) to advertise their services.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the novel "...creates a scarily high-tech brand of intrigue. Mr. Connelly is a spare, expeditious storyteller with a natural talent for generating forward momentum.” [1] Publishers Weekly wrote, "Connelly’s plotting is shrink-wrap tight, his characters… are smartly drawn. It’s the rare reader who will be able to finger the villain behind all the mayhem. …this is the perfect book for a long airplane ride…” [2]
Michael Joseph Connelly is an American author of detective novels and other crime fiction, notably those featuring LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch and criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller. Connelly is the bestselling author of 38 novels and one work of non-fiction, with over 74 million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into 40 languages. His first novel, The Black Echo, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly's 1997 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of Connelly's novel The Lincoln Lawyer starred Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. Connelly was the President of the Mystery Writers of America from 2003 to 2004.
Once Bitten is a 1985 American teen horror comedy film, starring Lauren Hutton, Jim Carrey, and Karen Kopins. Carrey has his first major lead role playing Mark Kendall, an innocent and naive high school student who is seduced in a Hollywood nightclub by a sultry blonde countess (Hutton), who unknown to him is a centuries-old vampire. While the film underperformed at the box office, it has since become a cult classic.
Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is a fictional character created by American author Michael Connelly. Bosch debuted as the lead character in the 1992 novel The Black Echo, the first in a best-selling police procedural series now numbering 24 novels.
Diabolique is a 1996 American psychological thriller film directed by Jeremiah Chechik, written by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Don Roos, and starring Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri, and Kathy Bates. The plot follows the wife and mistress of an abusive schoolmaster who find themselves stalked by an unknown assailant after murdering him and disposing of his body.
The Overlook is the 18th novel by American crime writer Michael Connelly, and the thirteenth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.
Echo Park is the 17th novel by American crime-writer Michael Connelly, and the twelfth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. It was published in 2006.
Strange Behavior is a 1981 slasher film written, directed and co-produced by Michael Laughlin, co-written with Bill Condon, and starring Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher and Dan Shor. Its plot follows a series of bizarre murders being perpetrated against teenagers in a small Midwestern town, at the same time that the local university is engaging in covert mind control experiments on the youth.
Void Moon is the ninth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly. It was released in the UK in 2000 and was the third of Connelly's books not to follow the character Harry Bosch. It was also his first novel to feature a female protagonist, Cassidy "Cassie" Black, and a protagonist who is a criminal instead of an investigator of criminals.
A Darkness More Than Night is the tenth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly; it is the seventh featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch, and the second featuring FBI profiler Terry McCaleb, with reporter Jack McEvoy also making an appearance in a supporting role.
Angels Flight is the eighth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the sixth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.
Trunk Music is the sixth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the fifth featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch.
The Last Coyote is the fourth novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. It was first published in 1995 and the novel won the 1996 Dilys Award given by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.
The Concrete Blonde is the third novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, featuring the Los Angeles detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. It was published in 1994.
Without a Trace is a 1983 American drama film directed by Stanley R. Jaffe and starring Kate Nelligan, Judd Hirsch, David Dukes and Stockard Channing. It is based on the novel Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon. The story is partly based on the disappearance of Etan Patz.
The Brass Verdict is the 19th novel by American author Michael Connelly and features the second appearance of Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Michael "Mickey" Haller. Connelly introduced Haller in his bestselling 2005 novel The Lincoln Lawyer.
Nine Dragons is the 14th novel in the Harry Bosch series and the 22nd book by American crime author Michael Connelly. It was published in the U.K. and Ireland on October 1, 2009, and worldwide on October 13, 2009.
The Reversal is the 22nd novel by American author Michael Connelly and features the third major appearance of Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Michael "Mickey" Haller. Connelly introduced Haller in his bestselling 2005 novel The Lincoln Lawyer and then paired him with LAPD detective Harry Bosch, his half-brother, in 2008's The Brass Verdict. In 2009's 9 Dragons, Haller was a secondary character as Bosch's personal lawyer. The Reversal was published in the United States on October 5, 2010.
J. Michael "Mickey" Haller, Junior is a fictional character created by Michael Connelly in his 2005 novel The Lincoln Lawyer. Haller, a Los Angeles-based defense attorney, is the younger paternal half-brother of Connelly's best-known character, LAPD Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch. The Mickey Haller series currently consists of seven published novels.
The Drop is the 24th novel by American crime author Michael Connelly, and the fifteenth novel featuring Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective Harry Bosch. The book was published on 22 November 2011.
Bosch is an American police procedural television series produced by Amazon Studios and Fabrik Entertainment starring Titus Welliver as Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch. The show was developed for Amazon by Eric Overmyer, and the first season takes its inspiration from the Michael Connelly novels City of Bones (2002), Echo Park (2006), and The Concrete Blonde (1994). It was one of two drama pilots that Amazon streamed online in early 2014, and viewers offered their opinions on it before the studio decided whether to place a series order. The seventh and final season was released on June 25, 2021.