Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Two bodies are discovered at an address on the Bloody Angle, Chinatown's historic Tong battleground. NYPD Detective Jack Yu's investigation takes him across the country to another Chinatown, this one in Seattle, in pursuit of a cold-blooded Chinese American gangster and a mysterious Hong Kong femme fatale.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
What started as a promising series has devolved into something just run-of-the-mill, as shown by Chang's third procedural featuring NYPD detective Jack Yu (after 2008's Year of the Dog). A murder-suicide in Chinatown of a Chinese-American couple leads Yu's former commander to call him in as a public relations gesture to an influential citizens' group. The case proves to be open and shut, and the book primarily deals with the detective's efforts to tie up loose ends from the murder of Uncle Four, a gang leader, by tracing the whereabouts of Four's mistress, Mona. When the trail points to Seattle, where, coincidentally, Yu's love-interest, lawyer Alexandra Lee-Chow, is set to receive an award, he travels there on his own dime. The plot contrivances don't end there. Unlike, say, Ed Lin (Snakes Can't Run), Chang fails to make Chinatown engaging or his lead someone readers will want to spend more time with. (Nov.)Library Journal
Called back to Chinatown because of a murder/suicide involving a Chinese couple, Det. Jack Yu (Year of the Dog; Chinatown Beat) seems unable to escape the old neighborhood. While working out of his former lower Manhattan precinct, he finds clues that lead him back to some still-open murder cases and to Seattle's Chinese community. In the course of his investigations, Yu discovers that racism, though existing everywhere, can be overcome by his professionalism. VERDICT An action-packed plot and a carefully detailed mystery make this a feast for readers who crave insight into the cultural melting pot that is the United States.Kirkus Reviews
Detective Jack Yu, who seems destined never to get out of Chinatown (Year of the Dog, 2008, etc.), catches a case that takes him all the way across the country—to Seattle's Chinatown.
No simple domestic case of murder and suicide, no matter how heart-wrenching or emotionally fraught, can keep Jack's eyes from the prize: nailing the perp who ventilated Jack's one-time blood brother Tat "Lucky" Louie, a stalwart of the Ghost tong, now comatose after a disagreement over some stolen watches left several victims, including Hip Ching leader Uncle Four, dead. The police have arrested limo driver Johnny Wong for Uncle Four's murder, but Jack is more interested in another fugitive: Keung "Eddie" Ng, whom his best sources have placed in Seattle. Seizing the opportunity to squire his friend Alexandra Lee-Chow to Seattle for a conference, Jack makes himself at home among the West Coast yahoos like the biker who wishes he'd quit "harassing us true Americans," little realizing that he's only a hairsbreadth from another person of interest. Uncle Four's mistress Mona has also fled to Seattle with a stash of currency, jewels and (naturally) watches that have made her the target of some former professional colleagues just as clever as Jack, and a good deal more ruthless.
A sharp mix of action, post-Wire procedural and cultural commentary aimed squarely at readers who aren't overly attached to happy, or even conclusive, endings.