New Taipei Night Market Crime Novel from Ed Lin, THE DEAD CAN'T MAKE A LIVING

 

If you are an American or a European, you may feel like "immigrants" is a fighting word where you live -- the kind of issue that lures people into strong positions and sometimes regrettable statements. Your region's not the only one struggling with issues of migration, migrant workers, and immigration, though.

Ed Lin's newest Taipei Night Market novel (I reviewed Incensed, 99 Ways to Die, and Death Doesn't Forget - click on those) releases from Soho Crime on April 7, but of course you can pre-order it if you like. And THE DEAD CAN'T MAKE A LIVING is so packed with humor, peril, and plot twists that you might as well line up a copy to get you through whatever crises you feel like you are just barely handling.

 It helps if you know what the night market is in Taiwan, but Lin is expert at pulling you into the action with deft strokes of explanation. During his first class session at the night college that Jing-nan recently signed up for, to improve his life options, he's ready with a self-intro: "I want to tell you about my daily life, what it's like at the Shilin Night Market, where I have a stand called Unknown Pleasures. Visitors from every continent around the world love our skewers."

 But his very nasty teacher would rather tell the class about all the crimes Jing-nan's been involved with, calling them "stunts" and saying Jing-nan is associated with figures from Taiwan's underworld.

 Well, that last part is true, but it's not something Jing-nan would talk about --  he does have family members who carry clout in the criminal world. With such a nasty teacher, he's glad to know others will back him up, even though there's always a price to pay for that kind of support, isn't there?

The crux of this crime novel begins to unfold just a few pages in, as a group of Filipino customers are taking up a lot of the seats when Jing-nan gets back to his food stand. His quick math indicates they've spent a lot of money on his food, and he's glad to encourage them.

"We're happy to have generous customers like you. Thank you all so much." I meant it sincerely. These weren't tourists from the Philippines. They were migrant workers, and some had been taking the government Mandarin classes. Maybe they were from the nearby food-processing plant. ... they streamed into the night market, which offered a lot of food and entertainment for relatively cheap. I put my hands together and bowed my head slightly to my customers, a universal sign of humility and appreciation for their business. 

For Jing-nan, that amounts to a commitment to see even these migrant workers treated well. So when one of them is clearly murdered, and another asks him for help finding out what happened, this chef and "adult student" agrees to look into the death.

Soon he's in too deep to back out, and even his uncle Big Eye can't stop bad things from happening to him. Ever the entrepreneur, he speculates on the value of adding a crime blog to his food blog:

My crime posts wouldn't be journalistic and dry. They would start on a visceral note: "Two hours in, blood from my loosened molar continued to drip down my throat. I asked for a drink of water to wash away the metallic taste, but my kidnapper refused. It was going to be a long night."

Will Jing-nan ever make it back to class? Actually, with his relatives interfering on his behalf, will his nasty teacher make it back?? And how will all of this affect his bottom line, his de facto marriage to Nancy, and his ability to staff his food stand?

Admit it. You have to know what happens next. I did ... I couldn't put this one down. 

New Tapei Night Market Mystery from Ed Lin, DEATH DOESN'T FORGET

After a four-year wait, Ed Lin is back with the fourth in his humorous and atmospheric "Taipei Night Market" mystery series. Drenched in delicious details of Taiwan food and food preparation, for Jing-nan's popular stall in Taipei's tourist-dependent Night Market, DEATH DOESN'T FORGET opens with a sweepstakes win for a minor thief named Boxer. When Boxer behaves (predictably) stupidly with the money he's won (200,000 New Taiwan dollars in cash (about US $670), Jing-nan gets roped in -- because Boxer is the boyfriend of the mother of Jing-nan's girlfriend (almost his fiancée), and Boxer's girlfriend Siu-lien wants to know where he's gone to and what he'd done with the money they were supposed to be sharing.

But no good deed goes unpunished, as they say. Jing-nan sets his own needs briefly aside to locate and check on Boxer, who's suffering a painful morning after. Not long afterward, Boxer is murdered ... and police captain Huang, who'd love to see Jing-nan suffer, tries to pin the murder on the hard-working entrepreneur.

Jing-nan shifted his stance as he tried to read Captain Huang's poker face. At the mention of murder both Frankie and Dwayne [Jing-nan's assistants] laid aside their [cooking] instruments and crossed their arms. The line of 10 people at Unknown Pleasures turned to the right to see what exactly was happening. Captain Huang recognized that these tourists understood only rudimentary Mandarin, so to help them out, he pointed at Jing-nan and said in English, "That man is a murderer!" They gasped.

Though the frame doesn't stick, it's quickly clear that Jing-nan's life and business can't be reclaimed until the crime is solved. That's the entry for a tangled plot of motives and opportunities flying around like trapeze artists, swinging past each other in midair, and incidentally featuring several persons of aboriginal descent and a public circus performance.

This mystery has the same big pluses and small minus as the earlier ones by Ed Lin: The plot is lively, the characters unusual and well motivated, and the scenes are intriguing and unusual. On the other hand, the language reads like a translation (which it isn't), perhaps an effort by Lin to add more Taiwanese feel to his storytelling. It may not bother readers who are more interested in how the threads tangle and untangle (and less in the mouth feel, so to speak).

For any shelf of Taiwan or international crime fiction, Ed Lin's books are a must. They hold up to re-reading, too. (Actually, to save on decision making, just collect all of Soho Crime's international mysteries.) Special treats are moments like Jing-nan's reply to Captain Huang, who declines to arrest him (based on evidence): "Well, to hell with that, then. I'm staying here. I have a business to run."

 PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.