- 9tail Fox
infobox Book |
name = 9tail Fox
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption = First edition cover
author =Jon Courtenay Grimwood
cover_artist =
country =United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre =Speculative fiction novel
publisher =Victor Gollancz Ltd
release_date = October,2005
media_type = Print (Hardcover )
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-575-07615-1 (first edition, hardback)
preceded_by =
followed_by ="9tail Fox" is a 2005
novel byJon Courtenay Grimwood .Plot summary
The plot centres around Bobby Zha, a
Sergeant at the fictionalSFPD Chinatown station inSan Francisco . The claimed shooting of a burglar by eleven-year-old Natalie Persikov conflicts with Zha's intuition on the matter, but before he has a real chance to investigate he is shot himself. [9 Tail Fox, p. 28.]After meeting the "Jinwei hu" (the nine-tailed fox of the title) while dead, Bobby wakes up in a hospital. However, there are a few surprises for him on waking; not least that apparently he isn't Bobby Zha anymore. The doctors tell him he's in
New York , notSan Francisco ; he was never shot; and that he's Robert Van Berg, sole survivor of a car crash that killed both his parents and put him into acoma since he was fifteen. Now adult and sole inheritor of his family's considerable fortune, Bobby wastes no time in getting back to the west coast to investigate. [ 9 Tail Fox, pp. 48 - 60.]In between looking into the case of his own murder, finding out what really happened at the Persikov's house and following up the leads from his contacts among the homeless of San Francisco, Bobby becomes increasingly concerned over his own identity. Changing identities at a whim — an FBI agent, a CIA investigator, a special forces agent direct from the White House — he questions his old acquaintances about Sergeant Zha, finding out more about himself than he ever knew.
The novel is set "a few years in the future", and frequently references Soviet author
Mikhail Bulgakov . Grimwood notes in the Acknowledgments that "the choice of Persikov for Dr Misha's surname is entirely intentional." [9 Tail Fox, p. 328.]Literary significance and reception
Booklist described the story in "9tail Fox" as a "typical revenge story transformed into a story of personal redemption—and a darn good one at that."cite journal|last=Pitt|first=David|date=July 1, 2007|title=9 Tail Fox|journal=Booklist|volume=Vol. 103|issue=Issue 21|pages=p33|issn=00067385]Publishers Weekly said that "Grimwood does sustain interest with a premise that could have fallen flat in lesser hands."cite journal|date=May 14, 2007|title=9Tail Fox|journal=Publishers Weekly|volume=Vol. 254|issue=Issue 20|pages=p36|issn=00000019]Footnotes
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
