Michael Connelly

Nine Dragons audiobook is read by narrator Len Cariou. It is available in CD and in downloadable formats.

Listen to an excerpt:

Question: “Eight bullets, eight dragons. And then there would be him. Bosch would be the ninth dragon, as unstoppable as a bullet.” Where does the title Nine Dragons come from?
Michael Connelly: Hong Kong has many sections. One of the biggest is called Kowloon, which means “Nine Dragons.” It comes from a legend. During one of the old dynasties the emperor was chased by the Mongols into the area that is now Hong Kong. He saw the eight mountain peaks that surrounded the area and protected him and wanted to call the place Eight Dragons. But one of his guards reminded him that the emperor was a dragon too. So they called it Kowloon, meaning nine dragons. I was told this story by a researcher who was showing me around Hong Kong the first time I visited. I loved the story and immediately started thinking of using Nine Dragons as a title. This dictated that a lot of the Hong Kong portion of the story take place in Kowloon, including the most significant moment of the whole novel.

Q: What inspired you to write Nine Dragons and to set a third of the book in Hong Kong?
MC: Nine Dragons is a book long in the making. It is a pivotal story in Harry Bosch’s journey — and his most personal one. While I think it is a book with more action than usual for me, it is also a deeply driven character story for which the inspiration was set about seven years ago when I was writing the novel Lost Light (2003). I think with a series you have to be very careful with what you do with your character. Harry Bosch is built to be of and about L.A. So I have to be careful about taking him out of this environment. Usually when I do, it is never for a whole book. I have him follow a case to Mexico and back. Or to Las Vegas or Florida. Nine Dragons starts in Los Angeles, goes to Hong Kong, and then comes back to Los Angeles. Sending him to Hong Kong came out of me wanting to do that again but to really put him in a fish-out-of-water situation. So I planted the seed five or six books ago when I had Harry’s young daughter move there with his ex-wife. When I did that, I knew that I would eventually write a story that would take Harry there and give me the opportunity to explore the character in completely different terrain. So the book has been sort of waiting to be written. In writing, you rely on your instincts in terms of what to do and when to do it. Somehow, I felt it was time to write this story now.

Q: Did you actually spend time in Hong Kong researching the book?
MC: About five years ago I stopped in Hong Kong on my way home from a book tour in Australia. I immediately found what I was looking for: an intriguing new place with a sense that anything could happen. So I’ve made two trips to Hong Kong to research Nine Dragons. One was a general knowledge trip. I then refined what I was looking for, had a general sense of the areas the story would take me through, and I went back to more specifically research the story, to more or less follow the trail Harry follows in the book. As it turns out, only about a third of the book is set in Hong Kong, and that segment takes place in one day. There is a lot of movement and action. Like Hong Kong itself, it never slows down.

Q: Why did you wait so long to explore Harry Bosch’s relationship with his daughter Madeline?
MC: In Lost Light, Harry got the surprise of his life. He found out he was a father and met his daughter, Madeline, for the first time. Over the years and stories that followed their meeting, Harry’s relationship with his daughter never moved to the forefront because I wasn’t ready to explore it yet. I wanted her to grow up some and be a character who could communicate with Harry (and the reader) as a young adult before I wrote the story that explored the relationship and what is Harry’s ultimate vulnerability.

Q: Are you saying in this book that being a father is Harry’s greatest vulnerability?
MC: Nine Dragons is about Harry and his daughter. It’s about his hopes for her, his guilt over his poor performance as a father, and most of all it is about his vulnerability as a father. Putting this young person in Harry’s life was done with a lot of thought. Up until Bosch became a father, I had been creating a character who viewed himself as being on a mission. He was someone who was skilled enough and tough enough to go into the abyss and seek out human evil. To carry out this mission, he knew he had to be relentless and bulletproof. By bulletproof, I mean he had to be invulnerable. Nobody could get to him. It was the only way to be relentless. And this idea or belief bled into all aspects of his life. He lived alone, had no friends, and didn’t even know his neighbors. He built a solitary life so that no one could get to him. All that suddenly changed in one moment (one page) when he locked eyes with his daughter in Lost Light. Harry suddenly knew he could be gotten to.

Q: Nine Dragons opens with Bosch investigating the murder of the owner of Fortune Liquors, a small L.A. package store he’s known for years. He still carries in his pocket a matchbook he picked up there on a case years ago. Its motto inside — Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself — has been a guiding light through some of his darkest days. How did you come up with this “fortune” and is it significant thematically to the novel?
MC: What’s weird is that I can’t remember where that came from. I think it was an actual fortune I received in a Chinese fortune cookie and it sort of spoke to me and so I used it in Angels Flight, which is the book in which Harry first visits Fortune Liquors. So that’s going back more than a decade and I can’t remember the origin. But what I do remember is that I thought it sounded almost like an anthem for a loner like Harry. As somebody who feels he’s on a solitary mission in life, this bromide or whatever you want to call it would speak to him and keep him on the path. I think he finds refuge in himself by believing in the cause and remaining relentlessly in pursuit of it. By believing that everybody should count or nobody should count. By believing that no one need know about his mission as long as he believes in it himself. I think that it is not only thematic to this book but to all of the Bosch books.

Q: Do you think readers in Hong Kong will enjoy riding with Harry Bosch through their city?
MC: I don’t know. I think they might see a part of their city they haven’t seen before. The nature of a crime novel is to explore all areas of a city, good and bad. In this story Harry is on a mission that literally takes him from the highest vistas of the city to some its darkest corners. I think Hong Kong is a vibrant and beautiful place that is full of intrigue. I hope I’ve gotten that into the book.

Q: The day that Harry Bosch visits Hong Kong the city is in the middle of something called the Festival of Hungry Ghosts. People are burning sacrifices to ancestors all over the city. Is this fiction or does this festival exist?
MC: Yes, it exists. One of the times I was in Hong Kong researching the ghost festival was going on and it was one of the things that linked this amazingly modern city with old ways and beliefs. I thought it was fascinating and something I could use in the book to sort of tilt Bosch’s world, to be a constant reminder that he was not in any sort of comfort zone.

Q: What’s next for Harry Bosch, and do you have plans for more Mickey Haller and Jack McEvoy books? Any other projects on the horizon?
MC: I think it’s safe to assume all of these characters will be back.

Nine Dragons TV Commercial

Michael Connelly in Hong Kong
Watch a 10 minute film about Michael Connelly researching Nine Dragons and making the same journey through Hong Kong that Harry Bosch makes in the book.

Wan Chai
Watch and listen as Michael Connelly reads an excerpt from Nine Dragons. The footage was shot at the real Hong Kong location mentioned in the excerpt.

The Peak
Watch and listen as Michael Connelly reads an excerpt from Nine Dragons. The footage was shot at the real Hong Kong location mentioned in the excerpt.

Michael Connelly’s Nine Dragons
On location in Hong Kong, Michael Connelly discusses his novel, Nine Dragons.

Why I Wrote Nine Dragons

Nine Dragons is a book long in the making. It is a pivotal story in Harry Bosch’s journey. While I think it is a book with more action than usual for me, it is also a deeply driven character story for which the inspiration was set about seven years ago, when I was writing the novel Lost Light.

In that story, Harry gets the surprise of his life. He finds out he is a father and he meets his daughter, Madeline, for the first time. Putting this young person in Harry’s life was done with a lot of thought. Up until that point in the Bosch series, I had been creating a character who viewed himself as being on a mission. He was someone who was skilled enough and tough enough to go into the abyss and seek out human evil. To carry out this mission, he knew he had to be relentless and bulletproof. By bulletproof, I mean he had to be invulnerable. Nobody could get to him. It was the only way to be relentless. And this idea or belief bled into all aspects of his life. He lived alone, had no friends, didn’t even know his neighbors. He built a solitary life so that no one could get to him.

All that suddenly changed in one moment (one page) when he locked eyes with his daughter in Lost Light. Harry suddenly knew he could be gotten to.

Over the years and stories that followed, Harry’s relationship with his daughter never moved to the forefront because I wasn’t ready to explore it. I also wanted her to grow up some and be a character who could communicate with Harry (and the reader) as a young adult before I wrote the story that explored Harry’s vulnerability. I had Madeline and her mother, Eleanor Wish, move to Hong Kong. I wanted them in an exotic place so that when I was ready to write the father/daughter story Harry would be a fish out of water.

I first visited Hong Kong and started my research after writing Lost Light. I went back again last year. In writing, you rely on your instincts in terms of what to do and when to do it. Somehow, I felt it was time to write the story. And so Nine Dragons is that story. It starts in Los Angeles, goes to Hong Kong, and then comes back to Los Angeles. It’s about Harry and his daughter. It’s about his hopes for her, his guilt over his poor performance as a father, and most of all it is about his vulnerability as a father. This is the story when Harry is gotten to.

— Michael Connelly

“…the most wrenching Bosch novel yet. …The jagged intersection between a cop’s personal and professional lives is a recurring theme in many crime novels, but never has it been portrayed with the razor-edge sharpness and psychological acuity that Connelly brings to the subject.”
— Bill Ott, Booklist * Starred Review

“Nine Dragons is a gritty, coffee-and-cigarettes crime thriller full of smart twists and generous helpings of suspense. Fans of Michael Connelly can expect another exceptional thrill ride, while newcomers will be immediately engaged by the tortured and unrelenting Bosch.”
— Dave Callanan, Editor Review, Amazon.com, Best Books Of The Month

“the plot twists twice in the final pages to create an astonishing climax to a thriller not short of heart-in-the-mouth moments. Its hard to keep a long-running crime series fresh yet in Nine Dragons Michael Connelly not only takes heroic Bosch to new places but changes his life forever. He just gets better and better.”
— Mark Sanderson, Evening Standard (UK)

“Connelly manages to make Hong Kong every bit as vivid and dangerous as his depictions of LA. What’s more, with Bosch on personal overdrive, the tension and pace he builds has never been greater, or more pertinent.”
— Henry Sutton, The Mirror (UK)

“Tenacious as ever, Bosch is even more formidable in his role as a protective father.”
— Publishers Weekly

“Connelly unveils his most personal Bosch story yet with this fish-out-of-water story. …another Connelly masterpiece.”
— Jeff Ayers, Library Journal

“Overall, 9 Dragons is THE reason to begin your adventure in the Harry Bosch experience. Michael Connelly continues to write exciting stories that can not only engulf you in a compelling narrative, but with his most recent work the reader is left with a strong sense of choice and consequence. Rating: 10 out of 10! (highly recommended)”
— Bookologists

“An apparently everyday murder in South Los Angeles takes Harry Bosch further and deeper than a case has ever sent him before.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“There are few novelists out there who can produce such compelling fiction so consistently.”
— Michael Carlson, Crime Time

“In common with all gifted writers, Michael Connelly has created his own peculiar world. He knows its terrain and understands its people, their strengths and their shortcomings. From it, he harvests emotionally charged, entertaining, disquieting stories — of which this, his latest, is a prime example.”
— Robert Wade, San Diego Union Tribune

“No dash, no flash, no flair, no flights of rhetorical fancy. No extra words. No wasted motion. A Michael Connelly novel is a thing of cool beauty, meticulously plotted, rigorously controlled.”
— Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune

“The Bosch revealed in “9 Dragons” is vulnerable, a twist that makes him both deeper and more human… what remains most interesting is the new dimension added to the character — a man who has evolved over the series of 15 novels to become ever more interesting and real.”
—Robin Vidimos, Denver Post

“though Connelly remains a master at detailing the intricacies of “the job,” it is Harry’s longing for reunion and connection with his ex-wife and daughter, the overwhelming vulnerability he feels as a father, that makes “Nine Dragons” another standout in the series that should satisfy all readers, whether they are new to Boschworld, occasional visitors or devoted denizens.”
— Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times

“Michael Connelly serves up this fifteenth installment of his Harry Bosch series in superb fashion. You would think after writing a character for so long that Connelly might begin to lose his edge or run out of great story ideas. Thankfully, neither is true in this case. The Bosch we fell in love with so long ago is evident throughout these pages and we’re reminded once again why Michael Connelly consistently soars to the top of the bestseller lists.”
— Jake Chism, FictionAddict.com

“”Nine Dragons” is one of Michael Connelly’s best procedurals. Bosch fans will enjoy his latest outing, both in the L.A. setting and in a Hong Kong where the residents are celebrating the Festival of Hungry Ghosts, with people burning money and other sacrifices to their ancestors.”
— David M. Kinchen, Huntington News

“Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch character is back in one of his best, most tension-thick novels ever.”
— Vicki Rock, Daily American

“Nine Dragons, his latest, not only brings back popular Los Angeles homicide detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch, but also features an intricate, wide-ranging and utterly compelling story, to go with credible, sympathetic characters and exotic locations, unusual for Harry, who seldom leaves L.A.”
— H. J. (Jack) Kirchhoff, The Globe and Mail

“This latest appearance is a complex and meticulously crafted tale, five years in the making, and packed with jump and juice. …”9 Dragons” clamps onto thriller clichés and turns them upside down. What would be maudlin sentimentality in lesser hands is hammered down to steely human drama. This is Bosch at his sharpest and Connelly at his most engaging. High-voltage stuff.”
— Katherine Dunn, The Oregonian

“This is the first “fish-out-of-water” book in the series, the first time Connelly has allowed Bosch to venture far from Los Angeles. More important, it reveals a side of Bosch we’ve never seen. Some enduring detective characters, such as Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, have barely changed from book to book. Others, including Bosch and James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux, have evolved gradually, the evils they battle endangering their sanity and even their souls. But with “9 Dragons,” Connelly has taken a chance by transforming a character millions have come to know well. In doing so, he has made Harry Bosch more human and interesting than ever.”
— Bruce DeSilva, San Francisco Examiner

“Connelly is in top form with the Bosch tale, his 15th: The story unfolds with exquisite procedural details; unexpected violence; and increased insight into the stoic, jazz-loving, relentless, flawed detective who bears the burden of every case.”
— Nancy Gilson, The Columbus Dispatch

“I visited Hong Kong as a young sailor many years ago, and Connelly vividly describes the sights, sounds and smells that I remember so well. I especially like his descriptions of the Festival of Hungry Ghosts (a good name for a future novel). I also spent a year living in Southern California and many times visited Los Angeles, the city of Raymond Chandler’s mean streets and Joseph Wambaugh’s cops. Connelly, who worked as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, follows in their footsteps and captures the city, its inhabitants and its crime scene well. Nine Dragons is a very good crime thriller.”
— Paul Davis, Philadelphia Inquirer

“But the center of the book is a breathless, bloody quest through a city Bosch barely knows, a teeming metropolis of skyscrapers and high finance in the midst of celebrating the ancient Festival of Hungry Ghosts. It’s a foray outside his usual haunts that works, and one that takes him into new emotional territory as well. But the implications of the two cases — the Hong Kong crimes and Li’s murder — inevitably circle back to Los Angeles and play out in ways that surprise both the reader and Bosch right to the last page.”
— Colette Bancroft, St. Petersburg Times

“Scary, shocking and sublimely suspenseful.”
— New York Daily News

“Each new book adds another string to Connelly’s bow, though Nine Dragons is a more straightforward adventure thriller than some recent work (despite Bosch’s very personal involvement). It’s none the worse for that. The globe-spanning element here expands the canvas, and there’s an appearance by Connelly’s other protagonist, sardonic Mickey Haller – plus some satisfying, out-of-the-blue narrative twists.”
— Barry Forshaw, The Independent (UK)

Nine Dragons is in:
Amazon’s Top 100 Customer Favorites for 2009
Strand Magazine’s Best of 2009
iTunes Best Fiction of 2009 (refers to the audiobook)
Seattle Times Best Crime Fiction of 2009
Best Mystery Novels of 2009, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Favorite Reads of 2009, BookReporter.com
Best Crime Books of 2009, JanuaryMagazine.com
Won the 2009 Strand Critics Awards for Best Novel

ONE

From across the aisle Harry Bosch looked into his partner’s cubicle and watched him conduct his daily ritual of straightening the corners on his stacks of files, clearing the paperwork from the center of his desk and finally placing his rinsed out coffee cup in a desk drawer. Bosch checked his watch and saw it was only three-forty. It seemed that each day, Ignacio Ferras began the ritual a minute or two earlier than the day before. It was only Tuesday, the day after Labor Day weekend and the start of a short week, and already he was edging toward the early exit. This routine was always prompted by a phone call from home. There was a wife waiting there with a with a toddler and a brand new set of twins. She watched the clock like the owner of a candy store watches the fat kids. She needed the break and she needed her husband home to deliver it. Even across the aisle from his partner, and with the four foot sound walls separating workspaces in the new squad room, Bosch could usually hear both sides of the call. It always began with; “When are you coming home?”

Everything in final order at his workstation, Ferras looked over at Bosch.

“Harry, I’m going to take off,” he said. “Beat some of the traffic. I have a lot of calls out but they have my cell. No need waiting around for that.”

Ferras had rubbed his left shoulder as he spoke. This was also part of the routine. It was his unspoken way of reminding Bosch that he had taken a bullet a couple years before and had earned the early exit.

Bosch just nodded. The issue wasn’t really about whether his partner left the job early or what he had earned. It was about his commitment to the mission of homicide work and whether it would be there when they finally got the next call out. Ferras had gone through nine months of physical therapy and rehab before reporting back to the squad room. But in the year since, he had worked cases with a reluctance that was wearing Bosch thin. He wasn’t committed and Bosch was tired of waiting on him.

He was also tired of waiting for a fresh kill. It had been four weeks since they’d drawn a case and they were well into the late summer heat. As certain as the Santa Ana winds blowing down out of the mountain passes, Bosch knew a fresh kill was coming.

Ferras stood up and locked his desk. He was taking his jacket off the back of the chair when Bosch saw Larry Gandle step out of his office on the far side of the squad room and head toward them. As the senior man in the partnership, Bosch had been given the first choice of cubicles a month earlier when Robbery-Homicide Division moved over from the decrepit Parker Center to the new Police Administration Building. Most detective threes took the cubicles facing the windows that looked out on City Hall. Bosch had chosen the opposite. He had given his partner the view and took the cube that let him watch what was happening in the squad room. Now he saw the approaching lieutenant and he instinctively knew that his partner wasn’t going home early.

Gandle was holding a piece of paper torn from a notepad and had an extra hop in his step. That told Bosch the wait was over. The call out was here. The fresh kill. Bosch started to rise.

“Bosch and Ferras, you’re up,” Gandle said when he got to them. “Need you to take a case for South Bureau.”

Bosch saw his partner’s shoulders slump. He ignored it and reached out for the paper Gandle was holding. He looked at the address written on it. South Normandie. He’d been there before.

“It’s a liquor store,” Gandle said. “One man down behind the counter, patrol is holding a witness. That’s all I got. You two good to go?”

“We’re good,” Bosch said before his partner could complain.

But that didn’t work.

“Lieutenant, this is Homicide Special,” Ferras said, turning and pointing to the boar’s head mounted over the squad room door. “Why are we taking a rob job at a liquor store? You know it was a banger and the South guys could wrap it up – or at least put a name on the shooter – before midnight.”

Ferras had a point. Homicide Special was for the difficult and complex cases. It was an elite squad that went after the tough cases with the relentless skill of a boar rooting in the mud for a truffle. A liquor store holdup in gang territory hardly qualified.

Gandle, whose balding pate and dour expression made him a perfect administrator, spread his hands in a gesture offering a complete lack of sympathy.

“I told everybody in the staff meeting last week. We’ve got South’s back this week. They’ve got a skeleton crew on while everybody else is in homicide school until the fourteenth. They caught three cases over the weekend and one this morning. So there goes the skeleton crew. You guys are up and the rob job is yours. That’s it. Any other questions? Patrol is waiting down there with a witness.”

“We’re good, Boss,” Bosch said, ending the discussion.

“I’ll wait to hear from you then.”

Gandle headed back to his office. Bosch pulled his coat off the back of his chair, put it on and then opened the middle drawer of his desk. He took the leather notebook out of his back pocket and replaced the pad of lined paper in it with a new one. A fresh kill always got a fresh pad. That was his routine. He looked at the detective shield embossed on the notebook flap and then returned it to his back pocket. The truth was he didn’t care what kind of case it was. He just wanted a case. It was like anything else. You fall out of practice and you lose your edge. Bosch didn’t want that.
Ferras stood with his hands on his hips, looking up at the clock on the wall over the bulletin boards.

“Shit,” Ferras said. “Every time.”

“What do you mean, ‘every time’?” Bosch said. “We haven’t caught a case in a month.”

“Yeah, well, I was getting used to that.”

“Well, if you don’t want to work murders, there’s always a nine to five table like auto theft.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Then let’s go.”

Bosch stepped out of the cubicle into the aisle and headed toward the door. Ferras followed, pulling his phone out so he could call his wife and give her the bad news. On the way out of the squad room, both men reached up and patted the boar on its flat nose for good luck.

TWO

Bosch didn’t need to lecture Ferras on the way to South L.A. His driving in silence was his lecture. His young partner seemed to wither under the pressure of what was not said and finally opened up.

“This is driving me crazy,” he said.

“What is?” Bosch asked.

“The twins. There’s so much work, so much crying. It’s a domino effect. One wakes up and that starts the other one up. Neither of us is getting any sleep and my wife is . . .”

“What?”

“I don’t know, going crazy. Calling me all the time, asking when I’m coming home. So I come home and then it’s my turn and I get the boys and I get no break. It’s work, kids, work, kids, work, kids every day.”

“What about a nanny?”

“We can’t afford a nanny. Not with the way things are, and we don’t even get overtime anymore.”

Bosch didn’t know what to say. His daughter Madeline was a month past her thirteenth birthday and almost ten thousand miles away from him. He had never been directly involved in raising her. He saw her four weeks a year – two in Hong Kong and two in L.A. – and that was it. What advice could he legitimately give a full-time dad with three kids, including twins?

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “You know I’ve got your back. I’ll do what I can when I can. But – ”

“I know, Harry. I appreciate that. It’s just the first year with the twins, you know? ’Sposed to get a lot easier when they get a little older.”

“Yeah, but what I’m trying to say here is that maybe it’s more than just the twins. Maybe it’s you, Ignacio.”

“Me? What are you saying?”

“I’m saying maybe it’s you. Maybe you came back too soon, you ever think about that?”

Ferras did a slow burn and didn’t respond.

“Hey, it happens sometimes,” Bosch said. “You take a bullet and you start thinking that lightning might strike twice.”

“Look, Harry, I don’t know what kind of bullshit that is, but I’m fine that way. I’m good. This is about sleep deprivation and being fucking exhausted all the time and not being able to catch up because my wife is riding my ass from the moment I get home, okay?”

“Whatever you say, partner.”

“That’s right, partner. Whatever I say. Believe me, I get it enough from her. I don’t need it from you, too.”

Bosch nodded and that was enough said. He knew when to quit.

The address Gandle gave them was in the seventieth block of South Normandie Avenue. This was just a few blocks from the infamous corner of Florence and Normandie where some of the most horrible images of the 1992 riots had been captured by news helicopters and broadcast around the world. It seemed to be the lasting image of Los Angeles to many.

But Bosch quickly realized he knew the area and the liquor store that was their destination from a different riot and for a different reason.

Fortune Liquors was already cordoned off by yellow crime scene tape. A small number of onlookers were gathered but murder in this neighborhood was not that much of a curiosity. The people here had seen it before – many times. Bosch pulled their sedan into the middle of a grouping of three patrol cars and parked. After going to the trunk to retrieve his briefcase, he locked the car up and headed toward the tape.

Bosch and Ferras gave their names and serial numbers to a patrol officer with the crime scene attendance log and then ducked under the tape. As they approached the front door of the store, Bosch put his hand into his right jacket pocket and pulled out a book of matches. It was old and worn. The front cover said Fortune Liquors and it carried the address of the small yellow building before them. He thumbed the book open. There was only one match missing, and on the inside cover was the fortune that came with every matchbook:

Happy Is The Man Who
Finds Refuge In Himself

Bosch had carried the matchbook with him for almost twelve years. Not so much for the fortune, though he did believe in what it said. It was because of the missing match and what it reminded him of.

“Harry, what’s up?” Ferras asked.

Bosch realized he had paused in his approach to the store.

“Nothing, I’ve just been here before.”

“When? On a case?”

“Sort of. But it was a long time ago. Let’s go in.”

Bosch walked past his partner and entered the open front door of the liquor store.