Chasing the Dime: Booktrack Edition

By: Michael Connelly

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

The messages waiting for Henry Pierce when he plugs in his new telephone clearly aren't intended for him:
" Where is Lilly? This is her number. It's on the site."

Pierce has just been thrown out by his girlfriend and moved into a new apartment, and the company he founded is headed into the most critical phase of fund-raising. He's been "chasing the dime" - doing all it takes to come out first in a technological battle whose victor will make millions. But he can't get the messages for a woman named Lilly out of his head:
"Uh, yes, hello, my name is Frank. I'm at the Peninsula. Room six-twelve. So give me a call when you can."

Something is wrong. Pierce probes, investigates, and then tumbles through a hole, leaving behind a life driven by work to track down and help a woman he has never met.

The world he enters is one of escorts, Web sites, sex, and secret passions. The beautiful Lilly is an object of desire to thousands. To Pierce, she becomes the key that might fix a broken life. But in pursuing Lilly, Pierce has entered a landscape where his success and expertise mean nothing. He is a mark, an outsider, and soon he is also the victim of astonishing violence, the chief suspect in a murder case, and fighting for his life against forces he can barely discern.

©2002 Hieronymus, Inc., All Rights Reserved (P)2002 Time Warner AudioBooks, a Division of the AOL Time Warner Book Group

Critic reviews

"A grabber from the beginning...utterly compelling." (Booklist)
"It's the rare reader who will be able to finger the villain behind all the mayhem." (Publishers Weekly)
"Connelly takes what could have been a typical suspense thriller and turns it into something exceptional through nonstop action and surprising twists." (Library Journal)

Our hero is an idiot

I found this book very annoying. Our hero, who is supposed to be a PhD chemist, is a total idiot. He makes mistakes no person of normal intelligence would make, such as entering what is obviously a crime scene and leaving his fingerprints all over it. Would you do that? Me neither. I don't require the hero to be a genius, but I would like him to be at least one step up from a potato.

Don't bother

In spite of the hype, I found myself struggling to keep listening. The main character is so naive and makes mistake after mistake, the novel is too frustrating. I want my characters to inspire. I dropped out two thirds of the way through. Waste of time.

Nobody Could Be That Stupid That Many Times!

This book was recommended to me by a good friend. He was highly complimentary and I've liked most of the Harry Bosch novels so I thought I'd give it a try. The main character in the story makes SO many stupid moves that I started getting so frustrated with him that I couldn't listen to the book for more than 20 minutes without pounding my steering wheel and screaming "NO, You idiot! Don't do that!!" The plot is good, the story is good, the narration is excellent. I give it three stars just for that. If you can handle a character that continually makes idiotic, self destructive decisions then get this book, you won't be disappointed.

Riveting Slipstream Fiction

My first Connelly book. You disappointeds/don't bothers/etc. simply don't understand the mind of a scientist. The wrong number was a fresh challenge, a side-project, if you will to get him through the rather mundane task of finding investors. These things bore scientists, so, with a small grain of salt, I can see why he'd be curious. The scientific underpinning of a nanotechnological 'engine' or energy source (a real scientific challenge to nanotech) was done quite well. Putting your disbelief behind you however, the story was riveting and having listened to probably 100 books on Audible it's the only book I ever sat down at night to finish (versus listening during the commute). I am now a huge Michael Connelly fan. I've now heard Lost Light and am working on the Narrows. Connelly constructs flawless plots that are at once complex and easy to follow. In the end, please save your dissing for Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, if you want to talk about improbable, intellectually suicidal stories.

Totally Unbelieveable

I have enjoyed all of the Michael Connelly books I have read or listened to in the past; this one was a great disappointment. Pierce's total lack of judgement and very rash approach to the problem isn't consistent with the logical mind of an accomplished scientist. I found myself getting angry and could not finish.

Disappointed

I expected more from the author of the Bosch books and others. I couldn't make the "leap of faith" to imagine the protagonist of this novel - a Ph.D. chemist - willing to risk so much for a "wrong number", and if I read "I just wanted to help. To see if she was all right." one more time, the book would have wound up in the fireplace. By the end, it was "who cares?".

Michael Connelly's most frustrating book

Thanks to the reviews, I left this book till last, over the last six months I have happily listened to all of Michael Connelly's books. They are great, I am a huge fan. However I found this book very frustrating and the first half rather boring. I went back to the reviews, because I was thinking about quitting the book half way through.

Please don't judge Connelly by this book, his other twenty or so other books are brilliant!

The main character as well as all the Villians are just so shallow and stupid that listening to this book became a frustrating chore.

The nano tech and other technologies mentioned are reasonably familiar to me so I got nothing much out of that aspect.

The last hour or so is good, but its let down a bit by the main Villian;s attack of stupidity.

Jonathan Davis' narration was quite good, I would be happy to listen to him again.

Not as good as Connelly's others.

I am a big fan of Michael Connelly's thrillers, and have listened to all of them available on this site. Whereas the others are great, this one is just okay. I agree with other reviews that the main character is just too naive, and the plot is driven by his unbelievable blunders.

If you're new to Michael Connelly, don't start with this one -- get one of the Harry Bosch mysteries instead.

A break from Bosch

For any Connelly fan, this book is a great break from Harry Bosch. Not a hard boiled detective book but a great thriller for anyone with a more than a few neurons flashing. It is a great listen and better than any James Patterson trash ever.

Worth the struggle?

I still don't know if it was all worth the struggle in getting through this book. I love the author's other books, and this story surely has his signature to it, but like some of the other reviews the main character is just too unbelievable. I believe the author was trying to do a study in the scientific research world. Maybe also he was trying to get away of his usual characters. He was trying to stretch his horizon, though as the listener I feel I paid heavily for his attempt.

Conelly goes science-fiction!

This last Conelly is kind of science-fiction where the science is boring and the fiction unbelievable. Sorry, C., this is not up to uor standards.
Peter in Sweden

Not Connelly’s best

Disappointing. By far Michael Connelly’s worst. I rate him as one of the very best but this book is cringe-making. The main character is supposed to be a genius but is actually irritatingly dumb. No sensible person would act like it. I’ve tried twice to finish it but cannot.