Michael Connelly

From a Q & A with Michael Connelly about his new Harry Bosch novel, Nine Dragons, which releases in the U.K. on October 1st and in the U.S. on October 13th:

Question: "Eight bullets, eight dragons. And then there would be him. Bosch would be the ninth dragon, as unstoppable as a bullet." Where does the title Nine Dragons come from?

Michael Connelly: Hong Kong has many sections. One of the biggest is called Kowloon, which means "Nine Dragons." It comes from a legend. During one of the old dynasties the emperor was chased by the Mongols into the area that is now Hong Kong. He saw the eight mountain peaks that surrounded the area and protected him and wanted to call the place Eight Dragons. But one of his guards reminded him that the emperor was a dragon too. So they called it Kowloon, meaning nine dragons. I was told this story by a researcher who was showing me around Hong Kong the first time I visited. I loved the story and immediately started thinking of using Nine Dragons as a title. This dictated that a lot of the Hong Kong portion of the story take place in Kowloon, including the most significant moment of the whole novel.

Q: What inspired you to write Nine Dragons and to set a third of the book in Hong Kong?

MC: Nine Dragons is a book long in the making. It is a pivotal story in Harry Bosch's journey — and his most personal one. While I think it is a book with more action than usual for me, it is also...[read on]

--Marshal Zeringue