Call number
MYST CON
Collection
Genres
Publication
Little, Brown (2002), Edition: 1st, 400 pages
Description
Fiction. Thriller. HTML:The phone messages waiting for Henry Pierce clearly aren't for him: "Where is Lilly? This is her number. It's on the site." Pierce has just moved into a new apartment, and he's been "chasing the dime"â??doing all it takes so his company comes out first with a scientific breakthrough worth millions. But he can't get the messages for Lilly out of his head. As Pierce tries to help a woman he has never met, he steps into a world of escorts, websites, sex, and secret passions. A world where his success and expertise mean nothing...and where he becomes the chief suspect in a murder case, trapped in the fight of his life.
Subjects
Media reviews
It doesn't have the urgency of his best work, but it also avoids his tendency to work in one plot twist too many until the plausibility of his story falls to bits... Still, "Chasing the Dime" is well-plotted and it holds your interest, and it's easy to picture the book's high-tech shenanigans
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translating well to the screen. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member SimonLarsen
The weakest of all Michael Connelly's books. The pace of the book is very slow to begin with and the ending is very far fetched...
As a book on it's own, it ok. As a Connelly book it's bad, he has written some far better books than this one.
As a book on it's own, it ok. As a Connelly book it's bad, he has written some far better books than this one.
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
It seems that after every three or four of his novels featuring Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch, Michael Connelly likes to shake things up a bit, and bring in a new protagonist. Some of these ‘stand-alone’ ventures have led to their own series, while others remain simply as one-off episodes. Yet
This particular standalone novel follows Henry Pierce, a chemist on the brink of an astounding breakthrough in the field of molecular memory, potentially worth billions to the computer industry. Having recently split up with his partner Nicole, Henry has moved into a new apartment. On his first night there, the phone (a newly installed line with what he had understood to be a completely new number) starts ringing, with a series of men wanting to contact ‘Lilly’. Bemused, he does some basic research and identifies Lilly as an escort whose services are advertised on an exclusive website. Now intrigued, and seeking a diversion from both the considerable work pressures he has faced bringing his start-up company to the brink of a major flotation and his emotional travail following his split from Nicole, he resolves to try to find out more about Lilly.
This plunges him into a shady world of sexual exploitation, violence and organised crime, all of which emerges with Connelly’s customary facility to craft a gripping plot. Connelly seems particularly gifted at ensnaring his readers. I know nothing at all about the science behind Pierce’s business interests, and ordinarily the explanation of them might well have made my eyes glaze over. Connelly, however, succeeds in conveying the technical wizardry behind them without making even the most scientifically ignorant reader (i.e. me) feel at all bogged down.
Another gripping and successful story written with Connelly’s characteristically effortless prose.
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even these are grounded in the universe of Harry Bosch, and there is normally some overlap through the medium of appearances by peripheral characters from the Bosch series, or an oblique reference to one of his previous cases.This particular standalone novel follows Henry Pierce, a chemist on the brink of an astounding breakthrough in the field of molecular memory, potentially worth billions to the computer industry. Having recently split up with his partner Nicole, Henry has moved into a new apartment. On his first night there, the phone (a newly installed line with what he had understood to be a completely new number) starts ringing, with a series of men wanting to contact ‘Lilly’. Bemused, he does some basic research and identifies Lilly as an escort whose services are advertised on an exclusive website. Now intrigued, and seeking a diversion from both the considerable work pressures he has faced bringing his start-up company to the brink of a major flotation and his emotional travail following his split from Nicole, he resolves to try to find out more about Lilly.
This plunges him into a shady world of sexual exploitation, violence and organised crime, all of which emerges with Connelly’s customary facility to craft a gripping plot. Connelly seems particularly gifted at ensnaring his readers. I know nothing at all about the science behind Pierce’s business interests, and ordinarily the explanation of them might well have made my eyes glaze over. Connelly, however, succeeds in conveying the technical wizardry behind them without making even the most scientifically ignorant reader (i.e. me) feel at all bogged down.
Another gripping and successful story written with Connelly’s characteristically effortless prose.
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LibraryThing member JoAnnSmithAinsworth
Had trouble with the title and the hero. He stupidly neglected his business for a dead prostitute. The connection between his sister and the dead woman was not strong enough for me to believe he couldn’t wait a week to investigate. Read to the end nonetheless.
LibraryThing member edspicer
It is a very original story that seems like real life, you know, no exaggerations. AHS/TM
LibraryThing member PIER50
Another good Connelly thriller. A departure from the Harry Bosch series, but has all the trademark Michael Connelly taught plot structure and twists and turns
LibraryThing member nivramkoorb
This book kept my interest though it was hard to buy that so much of the story was based on what the main character would do.
LibraryThing member dannN
A good read, but the ending was a bit far-fetched.
LibraryThing member gina-magini
Henry Pierce gets a new phone number and starts getting messages intended for a call girl. He can't help but get involved and try to find this woman who seems to have gone missing. Before long, he is entangled in a web of lies, sex escorts, and murder. This story has many twists and turns. I
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enjoyed it a lot. Show Less
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
Decent tale of vice, murder and computer geeks. This is the only Michael Connelly I have read, and though my husband who has read most of them reckons it is one of his worst, I quite liked it. It engaged my interest enough to have me yelling in frustration at the main character as he blundered into
When all was revealed at the end, I found myself admiring the twists and turns the story had taken, and the things I hadn't spotted, though I felt a little disappointed that a fair chunk of the plot hung on a rather unlikely assumption.
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yet another tight corner. When all was revealed at the end, I found myself admiring the twists and turns the story had taken, and the things I hadn't spotted, though I felt a little disappointed that a fair chunk of the plot hung on a rather unlikely assumption.
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LibraryThing member wiccked
Not a Harry Bosch, apparently an entirely stand alone book! I enjoyed the story, but I'm not too sure I liked the characters. Although I did like having characters I know from the Harry Bosch books appear - like Janis Langweiser. Although I'm not sure that from what I've read of her before now that
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I could really see her ending up where she was in this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member miyurose
This was not my favorite Connelly. Part of it is just me. Despite being a gigantic nerd, I don’t like reading about science and technology. Any time the plot got into the science of what Pierce and his company were trying to do, my eyes just glazed over. Beyond that, I found this mystery to be
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weak. No matter how much Connelly tries to justify Pierce’s involvement with Lilly’s disappearance (the old 'my dead sister was a prostitute and I didn’t save her' excuse), I just couldn’t buy his obsession with it. By the time we get to the end and find out the truth about what’s going on, it all seems a little contrived. A manufactured conspiracy. Thankfully I’m already a Connelly fan, because if this was the first I’d read, I wouldn’t continue. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheoClarke
Not realising that this was not a Harry Bosch novel, I wasted some energy waiting for him to turn up. By the time light dawned, I was engrossed. Connelly depicts a protagonist who is interesting but unlikely to be a very rewarding friend and I could see why his girlfriend had left him. For a long
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time I could not understand why thecharacter was so compelled to take such risky actons when he had so much to lose ; this was an essential plot element and I thought it grossly artificial until the whole story had unfolded. The technology that provides the tale's environment fascinated me but I found some of the dated consumer technolgy quite jarring in a story about emerging technologies. For all that, it was an emotionally rich adventure. Show Less
LibraryThing member armysparkey
Really good read ,got me thinking at times I knew where it was going then BAM!! another plot twist. Overall very good.
LibraryThing member Djupstrom
Sexy and sleezy in the best possible way. Connelly has a way of making things work.
LibraryThing member mrtall
In Chasing the Dime, Michael Connelly steps outside Harry Bosch's world with a kind of techno-thriller. Big-brained Henry Pierce runs a technology startup that's trying to build a molecular computer. Dime is moderately enjoyable, but falls far short of Connelly's excellent Bosch novels. It's quite
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prosy and overwritten, and lacks punch and focus. Show Less
LibraryThing member edwardsgt
The first Michael Connelly I read about a company involved in nano technology and the hunt for the murderer of a prostitute.
LibraryThing member claude_lambert
I enjoyed this one: it is a thriller about nanotechnology (they call it nano, because it is a tech smaller than micro). The book starts wonderfully, with a researcher who just got a new apartment and a new phone: he receives a call for the old owner of the apartment, then more and more calls. I
It is really well done and fascinating.
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liked that, we all get wrong numbers and weird calls. These phone calls remain at the heart of the story, all mixed up with a big techno deal. Great composition, excellent psychology, intriguing. It is really well done and fascinating.
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LibraryThing member raizel
I guessed whodunit and that the book was a mystery solvable by the reader and not just a procedural story of a computer researcher and owner of a company who gets a new cell phone and tries to discover the whereabouts of the person who last had its phone number. Maybe it's because I've read enough
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Michael Connelly to recognize that his detective stories are also mysteries. Show Less
LibraryThing member infjsarah
This was OK but I was slightly disappointed. It seemed too far fetched. I usually like Michael Connelly novels a lot but this one didn't quite work. It was interesting to read about DNA computing though and I did look it up afterwards.
LibraryThing member blush48
I love Connelly's books, but this one is totally independent of all his series - - - no Harry Bosch, no Micky Haller, and I missed them! Good story though about a scientist who ventures into a world of vice, and gets pulled in further.
LibraryThing member therestlessmouse
I thought this was going to be medical drama ike a Chrichton novel, but soon it turned into an edge-of-your seat page turner. Now one of my favorite Connelly books.
LibraryThing member drmom62
I listened to this as an audiobook which said that the text was abridged for the audio. It did have an abrupt ending and was a rather convoluted story.
More so than in the other Connelly books, the action and tension were almost constant once started.
More so than in the other Connelly books, the action and tension were almost constant once started.
LibraryThing member drmom62
I listened to this as an audiobook which said that the text was abridged for the audio. It did have an abrupt ending and was a rather convoluted story.
More so than in the other Connelly books, the action and tension were almost constant once started.
More so than in the other Connelly books, the action and tension were almost constant once started.
LibraryThing member zmagic69
Wow, I often have wondered would every Michael Connelly book be excellent? The answer is no. Chasing The Dime, is slow, the believability of the story is zero, and the plot is ridiculous. Even with all of this going against the book it was still better than 15-20 books I read last year.
LibraryThing member rosalita
A computer genius is on the verge of hooking a major financial backer for his nanotechnology firm when a strange coincidence — the new phone number he's issued when he and his wife split turns out to have belonged to a now-missing high-rent call girl — threatens everything he's worked so hard
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to achieve. This book never clicked for me. Part of it may be that I am pretty much a science idiot, and there is a lot of scientific babble slowing down the advancement of the plot. But the main reason was that I simply did not find it believable that such a smart guy, with everything on the line professionally, would allow himself to be distracted by a weird amateur-detective turn on behalf of a woman he had never met. Show Less
Pages
400
ISBN
0316153915 / 9780316153911