Art Imitates Life….
Millions of people love mysteries. The popularity of CSI and shows like CSI establish that fact, and also most books that made the bestsellers list have some sort of mystery component.
Michael Connelly, a New York Times Bestselling author, has a new mystery book out titled “Nine Dragons”. After researching his novel and working with the person who was videotaping his work and research, he found out about a chillingly similar crime to the plot line in his novel.
“Nine Dragons” follows Detective Harry Bosch who is searching for his missing daughter in Hong Kong. She was last seen in Chungking Mansion. Connelly’s story ends well, with Bosch finding his daughter and the bad guys defeated.
Ani Ashekian, a Canadian tourist disappeared in Hong Kong. She was at Chungking Mansion a few days before Connelly was there, and the similaries have distured Connelly greatly. Ashekian has not been found, and the trail has truly hit a dead end. In Connelly’s books, there is always something to go off of, some trail to follow.
This is newsworthy because it is unusual. Some authors base books off of actual happenings that have happened before. Some criminals have copied books, but that doesn’t happen very much. But an author researching a book and the plot being eerily similar to a real life situation happening at basically the same time?
Creepy!