2010: #44 – Chasing the Dime (Michael Connelly)

Book #44 was Chasing the Dime by Michael Connelly.  The back of the book reads:

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"–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.

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 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.

Page count: 448 | Word count: 102,676

2009: Fractured (Karin Slaughter)
2008: Death by Rodrigo (Ron Liebman)
2007: Cards on the Table (Agatha Christie)
2006: Turning Angel (Greg Iles)
2005: King’s Oak (Anne Rivers Siddons)

Used in these Challenges: Countdown Challenge 2010; 2010 100+ Reading Challenge; 2010 Reading From My Shelves Project; Pages Read Challenge Season 2; Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge;