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A review by testpattern
9tail Fox by John Courtenay Grimwood
3.0
Sort of disposeable, read-it-in-a-day supernatural detective techno thriller.
In a near-future San Francisco, Detective Sergeant Bobby Zha is killed investigating a break-in in Chinatown. He awakes in the body of a white man who's been in a coma ward in NYC for 20 years. Luckily, the body he's wearing is the heir to a sizable settlement over the car crash that left it comatose, so Bobby zips back to SF to investigate his death. Police corruption and brain-swapping technothriller hijinks ensue.
Grimwood gets a lot of the feel of San Francisco right, although one feels that he didn't really leave Chinatown/Union Square on his research visits. The rest of the city is sketched in very ghostly details. A Latina character lives with her mom and brother in a hose on Valencia. There are like three actual houses on Valencia, I think. And I don't know any locals who spend that much time at Cafe De La Presse, or who would stay at the goddamned Hotel Triton, as Zha does. Grimwood did spend some worthwhile time getting to know Chinatown (except I don't know where there's room between Grant and Stockton for a warehouse on a side alley, which is where Zha is killed).
One minor gripe: editing. A character is described on one page as having studied criminology in Houston, and then on the very next page as having attended university in Austin. A chapter or so later, we find that, yes it was an MA and a PhD in Austin. Another character, Colonel Billy is wearing combat boots on one page. On the next page, the rain is running into his cracked tennis shoes. Really John, these things stick out.
In a near-future San Francisco, Detective Sergeant Bobby Zha is killed investigating a break-in in Chinatown. He awakes in the body of a white man who's been in a coma ward in NYC for 20 years. Luckily, the body he's wearing is the heir to a sizable settlement over the car crash that left it comatose, so Bobby zips back to SF to investigate his death. Police corruption and brain-swapping technothriller hijinks ensue.
Grimwood gets a lot of the feel of San Francisco right, although one feels that he didn't really leave Chinatown/Union Square on his research visits. The rest of the city is sketched in very ghostly details. A Latina character lives with her mom and brother in a hose on Valencia. There are like three actual houses on Valencia, I think. And I don't know any locals who spend that much time at Cafe De La Presse, or who would stay at the goddamned Hotel Triton, as Zha does. Grimwood did spend some worthwhile time getting to know Chinatown (except I don't know where there's room between Grant and Stockton for a warehouse on a side alley, which is where Zha is killed).
One minor gripe: editing. A character is described on one page as having studied criminology in Houston, and then on the very next page as having attended university in Austin. A chapter or so later, we find that, yes it was an MA and a PhD in Austin. Another character, Colonel Billy is wearing combat boots on one page. On the next page, the rain is running into his cracked tennis shoes. Really John, these things stick out.