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Chasing the Dime

by Michael Connelly (Goodreads Author)

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 12,280 ratings · 371 reviews

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...more

Paperback, 448 pages

Published September 1st 2003 by Vision (first published 2002)

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson

The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

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25th out of 27 books — 38 voters

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Sep 08, 2011 Anastasia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporanei, usa

I thriller americani e la fissa per i laboratori scientifici. No, cioè, sono dappertutto.

Non ditemi che non è vero, perché quasi ogni volta che apro un thriller americano c'è di mezzo un laboratorio scientifico. O degli scienziati, o un progetto scientifico. Insomma, di solito le cose vanno a braccetto. Magari li pesco tutti io, eh.

Questo libro è un crescendo di "forse l'ho valutato male". Parte in modo abbastanza piatto, forse un po' da cliché. Insomma, la misteriosa storia di una prostituta...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Pat rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amazon's review sums up the plot: "Henry Pierce is about to become very rich--as soon as his firm, Amedeo Technologies, gets an infusion of capital from a big backer. But the brilliant chemist's workaholic habits are disrupted when his lover, the former intelligence officer of his company, breaks up with him. Lonely and dispirited, he moves into a new apartment and gets a new phone number that attracts a lot of callers, but not for him. His new telephone number seems to have previously belonged...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Patrice Hoffman rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'll be honest... I'm a little biased when it comes to my favorite authors. Michael Connelly is one of my favorite authors. The reason I say I'll be honest is because I wanted to give this book 2 stars because the main character just kept making me upset. The story hooks from the beginning. But I, like other readers, could not understand what was motivating the protagonist to find this woman who's number he was given accidentally. Had it not been for the ending, I would have felt this book was a...more

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Apr 18, 2013 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

I think this is the only book by Mr Connelly that I had trouble reading. It wasn't the plot, it was his lead character, Henry Pierce. I really didn't like him. However, I made it to the end and have to say that despite not enjoying it as much as his other books, it was still way better than many other books of this genre.

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May 02, 2013 Barbara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: action-adventure, drama, i-love-la, mystery, romance-sort-of, scifi, serial-killers, social-issues, thriller

While I am a fan of Connelly’s Harry Bosch novels, this standalone book, while having a great plot and pacing, suffered from the characters doing some incredibly stupid things. Connelly sets in motion a Hitchcockian plot when mild-mannered chemist Henry Pierce gets a new phone number that had previously belonged to Lilly Quinlan, a young woman working for an escort service. When Pierce begins getting messages from men for Lilly, instead of simply changing the number (or having his assistant Moni...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Mike rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery, reviewed

I've enjoyed two books by Connelly. This is not one of them. It is very difficult for me to continue reading when I loath the main character. But I had previously read and liked two books by Connelly, so I said to myself "just another 100 pages" after the first 66 pages were read. I read the book that way all the way up to the final 66 pages when I realized that I might as well finish the book as there were only 66 pages left.

I will likely read another book by Connelly, but the only reason why I...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Jane Stewart rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-mystery-suspense

I didn’t like the main character Henry so I couldn’t enjoy the story. He does “stupid” things for 90% of the book.

STORY BRIEF:
The background and secondary story:
Henry is a computer science chemist. He formed a company to research molecular computing. He has created a molecular energy source call Proteus. He needs $12 million to move forward with the research. His financial guy has been looking for investors. Their first choice is Goddard who is coming next week to see Proteus. The title is a met...more I didn’t like the main character Henry so I couldn’t enjoy the story. He does “stupid” things for 90% of the book.

STORY BRIEF:
The background and secondary story:
Henry is a computer science chemist. He formed a company to research molecular computing. He has created a molecular energy source call Proteus. He needs $12 million to move forward with the research. His financial guy has been looking for investors. Their first choice is Goddard who is coming next week to see Proteus. The title is a metaphor for finding a deep pocketed investor (a whale).

The main story:
Nicole and Henry lived together, but she broke up with him because he worked too much and didn’t spend enough time with her. The story begins on a Friday with Henry moving into an apartment. He just received a new phone number which used to be Lilly’s phone number. This phone number appears on the LA Darlings web site for escorts (prostitutes). Many men call Henry’s phone asking for Lilly. A normal guy might wait until Monday and call the phone company to change the number, but all these calls make Henry curious. He wants to contact Lilly to tell her to change her web site phone number. On Saturday he visits the office that manages the website. He talks to another prostitute. He visits Lilly’s home and place of work. No one has seen her for over a month. Now Henry is worried about her and wants to make sure “she is ok.”

REVIEWER’S OPINION:
The author is a good writer, but I cannot recommend this book. For most of the book I was saying “This guy is stupid. Why is he doing that? Don’t do it!” He has no common sense. It’s like a Dr. saying “Don’t pick at your scab,” but he can’t help himself, and he rips it off. He gets beaten by thugs. Lucy a prostitute gets beaten by thugs because she helped Henry. Lucy tells Henry to never call her again. What does he do? He continues to call her and try to find her. His reason is “he wants to see if she’s ok.” I was sick and tired of hearing that reason. That’s the reason he kept trying to find these two women. All that did was get him deeper and deeper into trouble with the bad guys and with the cops. Some of the stupid things he did were illegal, so this forced him to lie to the cops. Of course a cop catches him in these lies. Later a defense attorney tells him that the cops are planning to get a search warrant for his home and car. He says “Let them I have nothing to hide,” which is stupid because someone planted evidence in his car (which he later learns). I could not enjoy a story about this man doing so many stupid things.

The last hour or so of the book was better. Henry started to figure things out. He took some good action to solve his problems. There is a happy ending for Henry which I liked. The bad guys were handled in a way I liked. There was some explanation trying to justify Henry’s stupid actions, but it wasn’t good enough for me. His sister was a prostitute who was murdered and Henry felt guilty. So when he meets a prostitute he wants to make sure “she is ok.”

NARRATOR:
The narrator Jonathan Davis was good.

DATA:
Unabridged audiobook length: 10 hrs and 26 mins. Swearing language: I can’t remember hearing any, but there may have been a couple of strong words. Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes: one. Setting: 2002 Santa Monica and Los Angeles area, California. Book copyright: 2002. Genre: crime mystery suspense. Ending: Good for Henry.(less)

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Sep 03, 2011 Dzver rated it 5 of 5 stars

За да ви хареса тази книга, трябва внимателно да пропуснете всички обяснения за молекулния компютър.

Майкъл Конъли е автор на книги с лошото ченге. Независимо дали то е ченге, адвокат или нещо друго, дълбочината на образа на главния герой е колкото локва. В книгата лошото ченге е преуспял инженер химик. Лошото е, че в опит да се изгради дълбочина, в споменатата локва плуват детайлни обяснения на разработката на молекулен компютър и някакви бизнес срещи по повода, които прекъсват интересните моме...more

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Mar 10, 2011 Shelley aka Gizmo's Reviews rated it 3 of 5 stars

**Plot/Storyline* Protagonist whiz kid Henry Pierce is about to patent amazing new technology that will power molecular-sized computers, capable of being injected into blood streams (for example) to ward off disease and effect cures. While helping the company he founded seek investment capital, his workaholic habits separate him from his steady girlfriend. In his brand new bare apartment, at his "new" phone number he keeps getting calls for an escort service "practitioner", Lilly Quinlan, who Pi...more

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Jul 04, 2010 Jerry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Non-Harry Bosch a little light on plausibility, but still fun!

It's a remarkable coincidence that in the very same month (Nov. 2002) that Michael Crichton published "Prey", a novel about nanotechnology and minuscule robots, Michael Connelly brings out a book on virtually the identical subject. Protagonist whiz kid Henry Pierce is about to patent amazing new technology that will power molecular-sized computers, capable of being injected into blood streams (for example) to ward off disease and effe...more

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Sep 27, 2009 martin rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this immediately after reading The Closers (which was enjoyable) and found it very disappointing. OK, the research and the original concept are impressive, no doubt about that, but as potboiler thrillers go this one should be in the "straight to video" list. Good for reading on a journey as long as you don't want to think too much

This is a murder/missing person thriller based very tenuously on a conspiracy plot that ranks right up there with the best "Elvis was kidnapped by Martians" stuf...more

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Jun 04, 2009 Clint Mccoy rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was alright...not his best. It was good to read to kill some time.

Most of it was predictable and I couldn't believe how the main character didn't catch onto a lot of what was going on. I mean, if you see a "U-Store-It" key on your keychain and there's been a murder then yeah, that's where the body is. And, Jesus Christ! Every damn cop thriller I read has a Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry reference in it and it's not subtle at all. Calm down with that shit! I mean, I like Clint Eastwood, hell I...more

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Dec 28, 2011 Bruce Snell rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is another of the stand alone novels by Michael Connelly. This story is what I have come to expect from Connelly, a complex plot, believable characters, and interesting situations all thrown together with a good mix of action. The protagonist, Henry Pierce, has split up with his girlfriend, and moved into a new apartment. As he is moving in, he receives several phone calls to his new number, and discovers that the number had previously been assigned to a (now missing) call girl. Henry is in...more

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May 11, 2012 Aaron rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is my least favorite of he Michael connelly books so far. I contemplated giving it two stars since it wasn't so poorly-executed that I couldn't bring myself to finish it. In the end, though, I was so annoyed by it that I decided the one-star review was being generous.

This novel suffers from a pretty big major flaw: the main character's every-man status. The fact that this character, for seemingly no reason, continues following up in this plot makes no discernible sense. He continues piling...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Audel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tout d'abord je tiens à remercier Livraddict et les éditions Points :http://www.lecerclepoints.com/ pour ce partenariat.

C'était la première fois que je lisais un roman de cet auteur et je n'ai pas été déçu.

L'histoire est très intéressante puisqu'on a à faire à un monsieur tout le monde c'est-à-dire à quelqu'un qui à priori ne devrait pas se retrouvait à jouer les détectives. Cependant, malgrè toutes les justifications de l'auteur (très nombreuses !)on ne parvient pas vraiment à comprendre l'ent...more

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Aug 16, 2011 Matt Carlton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Henry Pierce, a workaholic scientist trying to lead an emerging nanotechnology field, is trust into a world he doesn't understand after a tough breakup. A new apartment and new phone number starts a snowball that can't seem to be stopped. Pierce is a likable, but flawed character. He's trying to do the right thing and help a stranger, however when it makes sense for him to back out and let it all go he doesn't.

I liked the book, if could give it a three and a half instead of a three I would. I th...more

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Dec 26, 2010 Lea Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 10, 2011 Adam rated it 2 of 5 stars

Ridiculous story line, was still kind of fun.

That half page where he explains to me how the dimmer settings work in a car really pisses me off. "You see there are three settings. One where the light stays on all the time, one where the light stays off all the time and one where the light comes on but only when the door was opened...do you see? Pierce opened his door but the dome light did not come on....Pierce knows he left it on that other setting where the light just comes on when the door is...more

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Dec 08, 2010 Zach rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010-books, audio-books, audio-books-2010, techno-lots-of-details-thriller

NOTE: Not a Harry Bosh/Mickey Halleran/Jack McEvoy novel!

Pretty good, better than most thrillers, but definetly not Connelly's best.

This is not a Connelly "police procedure" style novel, actually reading this at times I felt I had wandered into a combination of a Harlan Coben (stand alone suburbab thriller not the Myron Bolitar series) or a Michael Crichton novel. The novel is what I think of as "suburban thriller" a seemingly normal, everyman finds themself involved in some complex conspiracy...more NOTE: Not a Harry Bosh/Mickey Halleran/Jack McEvoy novel!

Pretty good, better than most thrillers, but definetly not Connelly's best.

This is not a Connelly "police procedure" style novel, actually reading this at times I felt I had wandered into a combination of a Harlan Coben (stand alone suburbab thriller not the Myron Bolitar series) or a Michael Crichton novel. The novel is what I think of as "suburban thriller" a seemingly normal, everyman finds themself involved in some complex conspiracy or series of violent crimes. Most often the person attempts to extracat themselves by not doing any normal thing--NOT going to the police, NOT telling anyone, NOT listening to their lawyer, lying and attempting to confront the bad guys on their own. This allows the author a lot of opportunities to create tension (will someone find out and destroy perfect domesticity, the police convinced he is guilty, etc.) Harlan Coben has a series of these that work really well with most often a major twist at the end. Most other authors who attempt this are much less successful. Connelly is somehwere in the middle in this novel. He keeps the story moving, but there is less character development. The protagonist's obsession with the case is explained (much better than others I have read!) but the "twist" in the plot was not well layed out before hand and seemed forced at the end.

Reading this I realized what I love about Connelly's novels, the plots are okay but what really carries them is his attention to detail--especially his familiarity with criminal investigations and police procedure. Here Connelly has traded these details for lengthy descriptions about recent developments in molecular based computing and the complexitiy of tech start up financing--like I said this part felt like a Michael Crichton novel. Connelly seems a little less comfortable with these details as he does with the ins/outs of the world of police/crime/lawyers/reports in LA.

This novel, a stand alone thriller (less)

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Jan 27, 2013 Judy Collins rated it 3 of 5 stars

A good read....I enjoyed the audio as always. Henry Pierce has a whole new life — new apartment, new telephone, new telephone number. But the first time he checks his messages, he discovers that someone had the number before him. The messages on his line are for a woman named Lilly, and she is in some kind of serious trouble. Pierce is inexorably drawn into Lilly’s world, and it’s unlike any world he’s ever known. It is a nighttime world of escort services, websites, sex, and secret identities....more

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Sep 12, 2011 Connie rated it 5 of 5 stars

CHASING THE DIME by Michael Connelly, the unabridged version on 8 cassettes and 10.5 hours, read by Jonathan Davis. This book is not one in a series and has to do with a molecular scientist that gets caught up in trying to find a woman that had his new phone number. Henry Pierce is working on a project that will power a micro chip through the blood stream to get rid of diseases. Not the disease itself, but the power to make it move through the blood.

Some of the scientific things were a little o...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Guillaume Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Henry est un informaticien chimiste, ou un chimiste informaticien. Ou un biologiste hacker ? En tout cas, il est prêt de devenir très riche, grâce a sa société et une invention qu’il va bientôt révéler au grand jour. Mais l'obsession qu'il a pour son travail fait qu’il devient célibataire, et doit emménager dans un nouvel appartement.
Mais sur son nouveau numéro de téléphone, il reçoit plein d'appels, d'hommes, qui cherchent une certaine Lily, qui semble exercer le plus vieux métier du monde. Int...more

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May 23, 2011 Joe White rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: on-shelf, fiction, michael-connelly

This story takes what might be an upscale crime thriller and presents it from the viewpoint of a victim who is/has been set up for a murder. However the setup isn't apparent until well into the book, at which point the main character is becoming unsure of whom to trust and increasingly unsure of what actions to take. There are several unexpected twists, with a giant twist near the ending climax. There is a Harry Bosch like detective in this book, but he is seen as a black box object who is apply...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Sidna Bookout rated it 4 of 5 stars

Connelly introduces a new main character in this book, Henry Pierce, a computer genius. Some of the technology that figures prominently in this book is also mentioned in The Scarecrow.

Another interesting look into what makes people tick. Henry and his girlfriend have just broken up and he has moved into an apartment. His new phone number was the number of a prostitute and her clients keep calling Henry. He starts to wonder what happened to her and looks for her, which leads him into a life style...more

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May 17, 2010 Jaime rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, suspense

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 obsessio...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Cherisse rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

3.5

New character in the Harry Bosch universe, and there are several connections: Henry Pierce, the protagonist, is the younger brother of one of the Dollmaker's victims (Harry Bosch killed the Dollmaker, Norman Church). When Pierce gets into trouble, the defense attorney, a former prosecuting attorney, mentions that Harry Bosch recently retired. There's also a scene which is described like a "Heironymous Bosch painting."

Rather involved story of cutting edge science, internet sex, industrial espi...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars

Inspired by an event in the author's life, a bit of "film noir" on paper

If you are familiar with the movie style called "film noir" than you get a good idea what this book is like. In a "film noir" movie the protagonist is a regular guy with a secret. He gets sucked into the criminal underworld (or into the world of spies) by events he cannot control and does not understand. Betrayals make him question everything and his old life is shattered.

Well, all of that happens here. Henry Pierce gets a n...more

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Oct 08, 2010 Dyana rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was not a Harry Bosch novel; but about Henry Pierce, a scientist-entrepreneur, who is researching molecular computing and nanotechnology. He founded the company and is in a critical phase of fund-raising. After leaving his girlfriend, he moves into a new place and gets a new phone number. Promptly he begins receiving phone calls from men asking for "Lilly" and refering to her web site with the same #. He figures out that she is a prostitute and realizes that something has happened to her. H...more

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May 14, 2012 Gloria Bernal rated it 3 of 5 stars

The plausibility factor bothered me. Henry Pierce is just frustrating. A smart, wealthy young man with everything to look forward to just doesn't do the things he was doing to get in trouble, all caused by a wrong number! Curiosity is a big part of a scientists personality, I get that, and the guilt factor about his sister made him a bit more believable, but still a stretch.

I ended up reading it in two days, and can say it got me intrigued. I like techy stuff, so the molecular engineering projec...more

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May 15, 2011 Bruce rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: mmm

I read this because I could get the e-book from the online library, even though Todd only gave it two stars. Well, he was right. Henry Pierce is a hi-tech entrepreneur who has just split with his girlfriend. Arriving at this new apartment, he immediately starts getting calls for Lilly, who appears to be a prostitute. His curiosity in Lilly and why she has apparently disappeared gets him in the middle of mayhem that is ultimately targeting him and his business. This story was just too unbelievabl...more

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About Michael Connelly

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teache...more Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads' database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Michael Connelly decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.
After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat. In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written.
After three years on the crime beat in L.A., Connelly began writing his first novel to feature LAPD Detective Hieronymus Bosch. The novel, The Black Echo, based in part on a true crime that had occurred in Los Angeles, was published in 1992 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel by the Mystery Writers of America. Connelly has followed that up with 18 more novels.
Connelly's books have been translated in 35 languages and have won the Edgar Award, Anthony Award, Macavity Award, Los Angeles Times Best Mystery/Thriller Award, Shamus Award, Dilys Award, Nero Award, Barry Award, Audie Award, Ridley Award, Maltese Falcon Award (Japan), .38 Caliber Award (France), Grand Prix Award (France), and Premio Bancarella Award (Italy).
Michael was the President of the Mystery Writers of America organization in 2003 and 2004. In addition to his literary work, Michael was one of the creators, writers, and consulting producers of Level 9, a TV show about a task force fighting cyber crime, that ran on UPN in the Fall of 2000.
Michael lives with his family in Florida.

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“Money. The ultimate motivation. The ultimate way of keeping score.” — 4 people liked it

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