Book 57: "9tail Fox" by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 08:00![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeThe fox was pure white and carried its tail high and curled like flame over its back. Its eyes were red as coals, fierce with anger. White canines showed on either side of its mouth.
'Jinwei hu,' said Bobby.
The fox nodded, even though Bobby had only said the name in his head. Somewhere on Grant Avenue a kid let off a string of firecrackers left over from the night before and the fox grinned.
Although book books have a police detective as a main character, "9tail Fox" is completely different from the only other book of this author's that I've read. "Lucifer's Dragon" is cyberpunk, while "9tail Fox" is more of a noir detective story and is set closer to the present day. That's a good thing, as I hate finding a new author only to discover that s/he writes the same book over and over again.
Bobby Zha is a policeman of Chinese descent who works for the SFPD in Chinatown. His career has stalled and his marriage is in tatters, but he has an affinity for children and street people, and his boss Lieutenant Que mostly leaves him to his own devices. After being shot while on duty he sees a nine-tailed white celestial fox as he is dying, and then wakes up in the body of a man who has been in a coma since he was a seven years old. Conveniently, Robert Vanberg had received a multi-million dollar settlement for his injuries, which means that Bobby has the resources to investigate the cases he was working on at the time of his murder, in an attempt to find out why he died and why he didn't.
Nottingham Round the World Reading Challenge - USA / CALIFORNIA / SAN FRANCISCO
'Jinwei hu,' said Bobby.
The fox nodded, even though Bobby had only said the name in his head. Somewhere on Grant Avenue a kid let off a string of firecrackers left over from the night before and the fox grinned.
Although book books have a police detective as a main character, "9tail Fox" is completely different from the only other book of this author's that I've read. "Lucifer's Dragon" is cyberpunk, while "9tail Fox" is more of a noir detective story and is set closer to the present day. That's a good thing, as I hate finding a new author only to discover that s/he writes the same book over and over again.
Bobby Zha is a policeman of Chinese descent who works for the SFPD in Chinatown. His career has stalled and his marriage is in tatters, but he has an affinity for children and street people, and his boss Lieutenant Que mostly leaves him to his own devices. After being shot while on duty he sees a nine-tailed white celestial fox as he is dying, and then wakes up in the body of a man who has been in a coma since he was a seven years old. Conveniently, Robert Vanberg had received a multi-million dollar settlement for his injuries, which means that Bobby has the resources to investigate the cases he was working on at the time of his murder, in an attempt to find out why he died and why he didn't.
