Book Review: Chasing the Dime

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Chasing the Dime     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Michael Connelly
Class/Genre:   Mystery
Little, Brown, Oct 2002, $25.95, 371 pp.

Henry Pierce obtains a new phone number that the scientist quickly sends out to his business contacts and scientific peers. However, he soon receives calls from individuals asking for Lilly and her escort service. He concludes that Lilly is a high priced call girl peddling her wares through her number placed in cyberspace except those phone digits now belong to Henry.

From his molecular research work, Henry is used to doing things so he seeks out Lilly to get her to remove the number from her homepage. However, Lilly apparently has vanished, which reminds Henry of his sister who turned hooker before being murdered. Unable to resist, Henry begins a search for Lilly that leads to the police and some nasty individuals chasing after him. As he applies deductive and inductive reasoning to his situation, Henry realizes his paranoia proves valid not to trust anyone.

Hitchcock fans will enjoy this contemporary updating of the classic North by Northwest due to the action and clever twists and turns. Henry makes a wonderful Roger Thornhill as he struggles with the truth that never seems to be out there. Readers will briefly wonder why a brilliantly logical person like Henry failed to just obtain a new number even if he knows it’s a pain to inform his associates of the change and feels guilty over his sister’s death. Still, fans will gloss over that as the delightful thriller stars an intelligent nerd landing in one predicament after another using sound reasoning to stay alive for the moment.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner