Asian Americans - Fiction & Literature, Police Stories

Chinatown Beat

Name: Chinatown Beat
Author: Henry Chang
ISBN: 9781569474785

by Henry Chang

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Overview

“Here’s a dark slice of New York’s Chinatown that most of us...have probably never seen. Henry Chang takes us on an unforgettable guided tour of its lower depths. In a field awash with pallid noir thrillers, this one is the real thing. A genuine winner.”—Herbert H. Lieberman, author of City of the Dead and Shadow Dancers

“A dramatic evocation of the exotic. . . . More rewarding than a trip to Chinatown.”—Qin Xiaolong, author of Death of a Red Herione

Detective Jack Yu grew up in Chinatown. Some of his friends are criminals now; some are dead. Jack has just been transferred to his old neighborhood, where 99 percent of the cops are white. Unlike the others, confused by the residents who speak another language even when they’re speaking English, Jack knows what’s going on.

He is confronted with a serial rapist who preys on young Chinese girls. Then Uncle Four, an elderly and respected leader of the charitable Hip Ching Society and member of the Hong Kong-based Red Circle Triad, is gunned down. Jack learns that benevolent Uncle Four had a gorgeous young mistress imported from Hong Kong. And she is missing.

To solve these crimes, Jack turns to an elderly fortune teller, an old friend of his, in addition to employing modern police methods. This debut mystery power-fully conveys the sights, sounds, and smells of Chinatown, as well as the attitudes of its inhabitants.

Synopsis

A Chinese-American detective takes on the seedy underworld of NYC's Chinatown.

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

Chinatown Beat a debut police procedural by Henry Chang, focuses a noir lens on the bewildering warren of streets in downtown Manhattan that waves of immigrants from mainland China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia have made into a culturally exclusive community, and the view he presents is pretty shocking … Chang has a cool, measured style that lets in some light, but not much hope, on a society that lives by its own rules.

About the Author, Henry Chang

Henry Chang was born and raised in New York City's Chinatown where he now lives. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute and CCNY and is currently a Security Director. He is the author of CHINATOWN BEAT, the first mystery in the Detective Jack Yu series.

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Editorials

Marilyn Stasio

Kevin Allman

All the expected locales are here—gambling and dance halls, brothels, secret societies—but the author, who grew up in Chinatown, keeps things fresh by inserting Chinese phrases and explicating cultural folkways on nearly every page. Chang drops a few stitches as his story knits together, but this is a nasty, terse slice of noir, and Yu is a fellow whose adventures should be worth following.
—The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

At the start of Chang's promising debut, NYPD detective Jack Yu must cope with his father's recent death and investigate the rape of a grade-school girl on the fringes of Chinatown, where he grew up and has just been stationed. Meanwhile, would-be gangster Johnny Wong is carrying on with Mona, the gorgeous mistress of his employer, Uncle Four, head of the local branch of the Hip Ching tong and a powerful underworld figure in both New York and Hong Kong. As Yu digs deeper into his case, suspecting that an illegal Chinese immigrant may be the serial rapist he is seeking, he finds evidence of a connection between the rapist and the local gangsters. Though Chang builds less suspense than more seasoned police procedural authors, he presents a fascinating look at New York's Chinese-American urban community and its subcultures. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

New York police detective Jack Yu, working out of the Fifth Precinct, has come home to Manhattan's Chinatown, where he was raised. His father has just died, and Jack is cleaning out his apartment. He is also working a case involving a serial rapist of young Chinese girls. The politics of being a Chinese American on a police force thought to be racist and corrupt is the dominant theme of Chang's debut. Hard-boiled enough for most die-hard fans, procedurally correct, and on target when Yu is dealing with the remnants of his father's past, this is a great beginning to what should be a worthy series. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 7/06.] Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Chang's debut sends a cop from New York's Chinatown back into his old neighborhood to solve a case of serial rape and murder. Chinatown is a place where everybody knows everybody's business. Detective Jack Yu assumes that any number of people know something about the man who's assaulting little girls. But except for Ah Por, an ancient fortuneteller who tells Jack, "I see fire, and someone with small ears," nobody's talking, and Jack knows why: They see the problem as something for their local tongs, Hip Ching and Fuk Ching, to deal with in-house. "How does a cop get help from a community that has no faith in officers of the law?" Jack wonders. It's a good question, though one Jack spends more time debating than resolving. In fact, Chang's characters seem to meet mainly for the purpose of making speeches to each other rather than engaging in the give-and-take of action or dialogue. Not even the murder of Uncle Four, a prominent Hip Ching undersecretary, heats up the tale. Instead of emphasizing mystery or momentum, Chang drenches his story in atmosphere, backstories and customs, building up a snapshot of the neighborhood detail by detail, in the manner of James Sallis. The process of patient accretion works against suspense but guarantees Jack plenty to do in the promised series.