Chinatown Mysteries: S. J. Rozan, Henry Chang, More

The wide range of international mysteries suddenly available in the US is exciting. Equally intriguing are those set in American (and other!) Chinatowns, where another "country" seems just a few blocks away. It's a good time of year to indulge in Chinatown mysteries, with the start of the Year of the (Water) Dragon just behind us, and the beginning of the Chinese astrological New Year tomorrow.



Henry Chang has staked out generous turf in New York City's Chinatown with Detective Jack Yu, in a trilogy of police detection books: Chinatown Beat, Year of the Dog, and Red Jade. In an interview with fellow mystery author J. Sydney Jones, Chang announced last year that he's now working on a sextet of Jack Yu books to follow the first three. The books are set in the 1990s, Chang's way of creating a bit of personal distance -- and also some protection against accidentally revealing a prosecutable crime, as many of the details in his books come from firsthand experience in the Chinatown neighborhoods, as well as recollections shared by retired criminals. A native New Yorker himself, Chang has an immigrant heritage and uses the tension of parental and community expectations to ramp up the pressures on the characters in his novels. I'm especially fond of Chinatown Beat, and in this trilogy, I'd advise starting from the first book; there are details in the third one, Red Jade, that make a lot more impact if you've consumed the series in order.

S. J. Rozan, whose heritage is not Chinese but who spends plenty of time in New York's Chinatown, offers a very different set of perceptions and tensions in her Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series. The most recent of these is Ghost Hero.  Chin is increasingly warm toward Smith, her detection partner and possibly, some day -- if Chin's mother can't stop it -- a more intimate partner. But there isn't much time for the two of them to connect, as they involve another Chinese-American private investigator to help them probe the complex world of modern Chinese art and high-stakes investment. Unlike Chang, Rozan sets her books very much "now" and one of the best secondary characters is Lydia Chin's cousin Linus Wong, a computer geek with both edge and (oddly) innocence. There are ten other Lydia Chin/Bill Smith books -- the series alternates in narration, from either Chin's or Smith's point of view -- and in this case, there's no need to read them in order. Jump in anywhere. My current favorites are Ghost Hero  and On the Line.

The 2010 release of a work of nonfiction by Yunte Huang, Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History, provoked a number of recent thoughtful investigations of American Chinese mysteries and their authors,  and Henry Chang shared with us an essay by Merle Jacob, surveying "Asian" mysteries over a wide range than extends to India and Korea as well. (Chan wasn't a Chinatown figure; that detective shows up in the 1920s books by Earl Derr Biggers, which have become very collectible.) The essay led me to pick up a crime novel by Ed Lin, Snakes Can't Run (2010) -- it's his third novel, and is the second featuring Chinese American detective Robert Chow. The Chow books are set in the 1970s in New York's Chinatown, and run dark and gritty; they're worth reading.

Finally being talked about more often are the reasons that Chinatowns exist in America, and it doesn't really boil down to "like lives with like" -- there's a nasty piece of anti-Asian bias in American history that came to a head in 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act, which, among other effects, prevented Chinese from becoming naturalized citizens. (This didn't ease until bodies were needed for World War I.) For a not-so-dark detective mystery that opens up these details a bit, there's Murder in Chinatown, one of the "Gaslight" mysteries by Victoria Thompson, set in turn-of-that-century New York.

If you have a favorite Chinatown mystery, or want to add to this list in other directions, please do leave a comment here. Meanwhile, a fortunate Chinese new year to you. Gung Hay Phat Choy!

Soho Crime Fest 2: Cara Black Brings Paris (and Aimée Leduc!) With Her

Dave and I love what Soho Crime has done for the international mystery scene: publishing series by authors who live or write from experience of international cultures. Meeting four of the Soho authors at once last week -- well, we couldn't pass it up, even though it called for a lot of driving.

Actually, we'd already met James Benn briefly at Kate's Mysteries (Cambridge, Mass.) last December. Trim, elegant, the exact opposite of the cartoon version of a librarian (his "day job"), Jim ensured that the panel of authors could relax and enjoy the questions, conversation, and capacity crowd. (I'll offer a longer piece on James Benn's novels later in the month; I've enjoyed them enormously.)

We'd seen photos of Garry Disher (Australia) and Henry Chang (New York's Chinatown) that matched pretty closely the authors as they strolled in. Reading all of Disher's Inspector Hal Challis investigations has been a huge treat; watching Henry Chang's career expand from his debut with CHINATOWN BEAT to last fall's YEAR OF THE DOG is a pleasure, and we shared the excitement as he told us he was about three-quarters done with the first draft of "book three."

So Cara Black, creator of Aimée Leduc in an award-winning series of Paris mysteries, was the author we were most curious to meet in person. How French would she look? What kind of accent would she have?

Coming in through the back door of Stellina's (a smashing Italian restaurant in Watertown, Mass.), Black instantly brought that sense of Paris into the room. If those weren't French jeans she was wearing, I'll eat my page -- and Dave instantly fastened his gaze on her French sailor's scarf in bold stripes of black and white. And yes, when she speaks, even though she lives in California, her voice has the lilt and gentle hesitations of someone to whom French is a second linguistic home.

"I think Paris chose me," Black reflected. "I grew up in a Francophile family where food and discussion over dinner was very important." In the 1970s when she first went to Paris, she got the sense of a collection of villages -- "not the Paris of the berets and the baguettes," she quipped, and not Hemingway's Moveable Feast (which of course she's read). But 20 neighborhoods that saw themselves as complete and particular. "I'm trying to find the flavor and the uniqueness of each part of Paris." And in each one, she's placing a mystery. So far, that's:

Murder in the Marais (1998)
Murder in Belleville (2000)
Murder in the Sentier (2002)
Murder in the Bastille (2003)
Murder in Clichy (2004)
Murder in Montmartre (2005)
Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis (2007)
Murder in the Rue de Paradis (2008)
Murder in the Latin Quarter (2009)

For each one, Black travels again to Paris (often bunking on a friend's couch) and re-immerses herself in the feel of the neighborhood, while working out the plot. She does much of her writing in Paris too, but also in California, where she carries the scenes with her -- images on the wall, maps, more. Getting up in the morning, she writes, and she commented that if she doesn't check her e-mail, she gets a lot done! She said, "Once I've got to page 100, I've got my place [Paris neighborhood], and then I timeline it and I finish it and then I rewrite."

One plus of listening to Black within the multiple-author event was the range of questions people asked, especially those who know this author well. Prompted by someone excitedly asking her to retell it, she revealed how her research led her to firing a gun with the Delta Force in Paris. Wow! Here's a link to that story in her own words.

Most of all, I enjoyed hearing Black talk about Aimée Leduc and how the series is shaped around this computer security pro turned accidental detective. "Aimée is flawed, vulnerable," Black explains. "It makes a better story that way." And, she finds, this sets Aimée into the great tradition of the "lone detective."

Of course, the effect can be a bit different on the other authors: After listening to how pleased Cara Black is that she has a framework of Paris locales that promises 20 Leduc detective novels (based on those 20 "villages" of the city), Henry Chang suddenly suggested, "I'll have to go to each of the fifty or sixty Chinatowns throughout the world!"

More on Henry Chang and his writing, later this week.

Henry Chang, DEATH MONEY: NYC Chinatown Series, Jack Yu

Henry Chang's Chinatown series, set mostly in New York City's Chinatown, is maturing and becoming very strong indeed. In the fourth Detective Jack Yu investigation, DEATH MONEY, Chang keeps the action focused in New York's five boroughs -- and if that seems larger than you're picturing the Chinatown influence, think again. Chang paints vividly the action of the 1990s, with its self-help and legal defense movements on one side, the dark criminality of gambling and prostitution and bribery on the other, and Jack Yu as token Chinese police detective, sent to deal with any Asian deaths that look suspicious. (The book's time period gives Chang space from his own life and from his sources, who sometimes were on the "dark side" thirty years ago but are aging retirees now.)

This time, Yu pairs the evidence, including a corpse in the river -- neatly executed with a precise cut to the heart -- with his own understanding of how the Chinese groups rub against each other and raise big money from people's urges to play, whether with numbers or games or sex. I especially appreciate the way Yu's perceptions highlight the separate factions among "the Chinese": immigrants from parts of "one country" that might as well be multiple nations, with different dialects, habits, expectations. I'm starting to tune in to my own time and place, asking, "Chinese from where?" when I meet someone new.

Chang takes a classic noir approach to his form, posing short, tight chapters that follow through on one of Jack Yu's actions or guesses. Action, threat, and the wages of curiosity push the pace. And then there's a breath, a pause, and Chang deepens the background detail, the way Yu sees the crowd at the notorious nightclub Fay Lo's:

The betting was moderate, mostly Chinese men chain-smoking around the tables. They looked like the workers he'd seen in the Golden City and China Village and in Chinatown, throwing down their tip money, the hustle pay of sweaty dollar bills, looking for the long odds -- twenty, thirty, a hundred to one.

The gang boys stood out from the civilian players. ... Swagger. Willing to fight and die for the gang family. Though it all aided law enforcement in identifying members by their gang tats and nicknames.

Yu's usual Chinese companion (on the other side, but able to keep their friendship) is still in a coma, so DEATH MONEY sees Yu tackle his assignment alone, barely accepted among the police, and taking a stand against people who connections make them powerful and strong. His only chance is to cut one out of the crowd at a time, and force the play.

Chang is clearly set for a long series at this point, well beyond the Chinatown trilogy he started with. That's good news for mystery readers, collectors, and armchair explorers alike. Oh yes, it's from Soho Crime -- thanks again, S.C. team!

When Detective Fiction Author Henry Chang Took Part at the Soho Crime Panel Last Week ...

I won't write a lot today about Henry Chang and his Jack Yu investigative series, set in New York's Chinatown and redolent of spice, threat, and complex cultures -- but that's only because I just wrote about his second book, YEAR OF THE DOG. Chang just nailed his first film option, with an independent film company that convinced him it would be able to sail well beyond the Charlie Chan image of Chinese detectives, to reach the dark reality of what he's writing.

Chang grew up in Chinatown in a bicultural environment, "So I can present these stories is a way that's familiar AND exotic." He added, "I'm kind of like the town guide that's gonna take you into the underbelly, and I'm having fun doing it."

With a past career that's included some forms of security work, Chang has the credentials to write vividly of the confusion and strain of police work. He's known his share of the crime association folks who people his books, too; but the stories take place almost 15 years ago, and he admits that most of the people who inspire his characters have long since settled into late middle age and quiet lives. (He's had one of them pat him on the arm and say "Hey, ya did good!")

"Outsiders are amazed by what they read in the book; insiders [today] don't go to the gambling houses et cetera" that house the tense action of Chang's Chinatown, he says. Bu there's one special way in which he connects his characters with his readers: through food. Everyone has a favorite Chinese dish, he believes, and he mentions many of them, along with foods that non-Chinatown folks will have to just imagine (and drool over) because they don't appear on the menu with General Tso's Chicken.

An active parent whose writing schedule has to allow for picking up his child from school (or taking out the trash), Chang writes in longhand, three or four pages at a time, at whatever time of day he can grab. He usually does thirty to forty pages before starting to type up the material -- at which point he's already editing his pages as he transfers them to the computer. His third book, with a first-draft deadline of July, was about 75 percent done when he arrived in the Boston area last week, but with a schedule that includes a BEA (Book Expo America) appearance and much more, he'll need every minute and all of the exhilaration of that last stretch to get it all onto paper in time.

Are Chang's neighbors worried that he's writing about them in his Jack Yu series? "Most of what I've written about Chinatown is 10 percent real. The neighborhood people are really just cheering me on." Some are shocked that he's translated their curse words into English, he admits wryly. "Nobody's chasing me down the street for my autograph, but it has got me a kind of notoriety -- more waiters (in the neighborhood) know that I write!"

Henry Chang's "Chinatown Trilogy" Concludes with Book 5, LUCKY

International mysteries pull me into new places, with intriguing histories and cultures, illuminated through the characters and their choices. I grew up reading "British" mysteries -- then was astonished when the French, German, and Spanish ones came my way. What a delight!

And then Soho Crime -- an imprint of Soho Press -- came into my bookshelves, and I delved into the lives and perils of characters in Scandianvia, Africa, Asia ...

But one of Soho Crime's intriguing "international crime" series turns out to be set almost entirely in New York City, in and around Chinatown, through the eyes of police detective Jack Yu. Because of the detailed cityscapes that author Henry Chang provides for Yu's investigations, I've come to see those red-bannered shops and streets full of Asian voices entirely differently -- perhaps most especially as far more diverse than just a crowd from one modern nation. Mandarin and Cantonese languages, Toishanese dialect, centuries-long family bonds and loyalties and conflicts, traditions and obligations that require fresh understanding and sometimes are far beyond everyday American experience -- all this is enfolded in Chang's mystery series.

With the publication of LUCKY this spring, the Jack Yu series appears to be wrapping up (although I never assume a detective's pages are done for good ...). It's been a series well worth anticipating, and in this fifth book (two more than the envisioned "Chinatown Trilogy" of the early ones), some important threads from the earlier books are pulled tight. The most important is that of Jack Yu's childhood friend and then criminal connection, "Lucky" Louie, who's been lying in a hospital apparently comatose, without a chance of recovery, through much of the series.

LUCKY opens with a few chapters from Jack's point of view, as he visits his father's grave in a regional cemetery, to observe the customs of Ch'ing Ming, a time of year when it's important to feed the connection to deceased family members. Of course that puts Jack in a reflective mood, but he doesn't have long to enjoy it, as his schedule pulls him into a mandated psych appointment, then a quick undercover visit to his sweetheart (big reasons why it can't be public). Meanwhile, surprising changes are happening in Lucky Louie's hospital room.

This crime novel swiftly transforms into a heist thriller, as a crime spree unfolds that involves Jack Yu on levels he'll never be able to admit to his superiors. Here's the author commenting on the tight, intense pace of LUCKY in an interview at the Mystery People blog:

"The tightness of the pace was an adjustment to the storytelling style. Lucky‘s written more like a thriller than a mystery, where you can’t wait to see what Lucky does next. Unlike Jack’s usual investigative mysteries, which can meander culturally as the clues arise, Lucky is an escalating conflict-driven crime world drive-by. Lucky’s actions drive the narrative."

It's easy to slip into spoilers, so I won't say more -- except that this is a really good read, worth adding to either the summer reading stack or this weekend's diversions. No problem stepping into this fifth and final book of the series without reading the other four, but it's definitely a richer work if you've followed Jack Yu's career and struggles with his mixed identities.

Wonder what Henry Chang is writing next? Because I'm sure he is. It's been too much fun! By the way, his author webpage is pretty much bare bones and often out of date -- for insight into Chang and his books and the causes he's championing, "Friend" him on Facebook. Worth the effort!

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

Henry Chang, RED JADE: Taking the Simple Out of Crime

The call that wakes NYPD Detective Jack Yu seems like a simple case of mild political pull: A Chinatown group that's helped the police force (yes, donations) wants a Chinese cop on the scene to investigate a murder-suicide of a young couple. Jack might wish his connections in Brooklyn held him close to his new home, but it's the old one in the Ninth Precinct that keeps pulling him back.

RED JADE is the third book from Henry Chang, an American with Chinese heritage, raised in New York's Chinatown (and still living there). Chinatown Beat and Year of the Dog preceded this one; together, they make up Chang's Chinatown Trilogy, but RED JADE doesn't tie off all the strands Chang has juggled through the series. The opening crime of the book makes it clear that Detective Yu is webbed and tied to his cityscape, where the echoes of his life resonate among the echoes of multiple Chinese cultures. Yes, multiple ... Chang's books make it clear that "Chinese" is a gathering term for Fukienese, Toishanese, people of backgrounds that vary as much as a Tennessee crowd varies from a Minnesota one. And Jack Yu's life is embedded with all of these. A mere twelve minutes in a Chinese car service takes him from his Brooklyn home to the crime scene at Seven Doyers:

Jack knew the street well; it was around the corner from where he'd grown up, where his pa had passed away recently. And around the corner from where his former blood brother Tat "Lucky" Louise had met his fate: shot in the head, he was now comatose at Downtown Hospital.

And the street is in the territory of the Ghost Legion gang. So it's almost a letdown when Jack discovers almost immediately that the crime is an open-and-shut case: a depressed young mother, separated from her husband and children, trying to leave her marriage, killed by her despondent husband who can't take the shame of her departure. He even writes a poem to explain himself, before shooting her and then himself:

Black Clouds
have covered the sky
like ink.
The whirlwind
sweeps in
from the rivers.
Even the air itself
Is frozen.

Inside,
A growing sorrow
I cannot bear.

All this sorrow and shame is good grounding, though, for Jack's deepening understanding of why the crimes he's investigated in the two preceding rounds haven't resolved: Fat Uncle Four's mistress Mona, an expert at inciting crime, has shamed too many powerful people. To catch up with her, and confront the forces of East Coast and West Coast Chinatowns and even mainland China chasing her, Jack launches his own cross-country chase -- one that just happens to dovetail with the movements of a woman prosecutor who interests him personally, Alexandra Lee-Chow. And whether the two of them can ever connect across their professions and especially across Jack's stockpiled caution and reserve ... well, that's looking as chancy as the possibility of catching Mona before her carefully planned luck (as rich as the luck of red jade) carries her away.

Chang's third volume challenges recent conventions of police procedurals, because (1) Jack's major detective efforts take place far from his own turf, (2) there's a huge amount of luck and feng shui involved in the arrangement of the book's components, and (3) much of the book is presented in very short segments of a page or two, with multiple points of view. It won't suit every taste. But it's highly effective in portraying the jagged fragments of Chinese heritage that make up the mosaic -- or even kaleidoscope -- of Detective Yu's motivations.

Red Jade Bracelet

A splash of triumph at the finale mingles with the dark tones of Tat Louie's continued coma and the ripples of malice and threat expanding from Mona's struggles to escape her destiny. Jack Yu's career in criminal detection seems likely to continue beyond Chang's original trilogy -- but now is a good time to make sure you've got all three books. I'm re-reading them; the presence of the Chinese-become-Americans is finally emerging from the shadows in a torrent of recent fiction as well as memoir, and these will stay on my shelf.

Soho Crime Fest Last Night in Mass.: Garry Disher, Cara Black, Henry Chang

We left home at about 11 a.m.; we got back about 12 hours later. All this, in order to attend an author event with all of the above, plus James Benn as MC and Kate's Mystery Books as bookseller of the night, at Stellina's Restaurant in Watertown, Mass.

Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY.

I took notes like mad while the authors answered questions, panel style. Baseline info: Garry Disher, born in 1949, here thanks in part to a travel grant from the Australia Council for the Arts to Soho Books, to bring him to this side of the globe. Cara Black, born in 1951, is at home in San Francisco but flies to Paris for research for each of her Aimee LeDuc mysteries -- and recreates Paris in her mind when she's writing. Henry Chang, born in 1951 also, native to New York's Chinatown, three-quarters through the first draft for his third Jack Yu investigation. All three are among the Soho Crime authors carving out a new role for global fiction and cultural exploration, within their suspenseful mysteries.

And now, back to Garry, whose photo is above.

Garry Disher's police procedurals feature Inspector Hal Challis and his fellow investigator Sergeant Ellen Destry. Set in the Mornington Peninsula of Australia, about an hour and a half from Melbourne, they center in a region that's lush, has plenty of rain (trash that old Australia image you carry), lots of pine trees, a beautiful coastline, and wineries -- but also, said Disher last night, the doubling in size of some of the old towns of the peninsula combined with global economic issues has created social distress -- and this is what he mines as he writes. Admitting with a laugh that he inflates the murder rate in order to make better fiction -- Australia is nominally gun-free, and he says most of its murders are domestic, with either a knife or the handiest blunt object -- Disher sees his task as partly one of teasing the reader into prolonged suspense, over each book and over the series.

Writing from eight in the morning to "lunchtime" is his regular routine, and he spends the afternoons converting his longhand to typing (doing a "first edit" at the same time) and/or doing research. Usually working from a plan for each book, he places absolute trust in his instincts. And if the instincts lead him off the plan, he follows.

My favorite tidbit: He cites an Irish author as declaring each book, to be written, must have a character, a situation, and a promise.

More tomorrow on Cara Black; then Henry Chang; then I'm going to indulge in a long piece on James Benn, who held back last night in order to be a great MC, but whose new book, coming in September, features Northern Ireland and his latest insights into a long stretch of significant history.

CHINATOWN BEAT: Henry Chang and the Sound of a First Mystery

January Magazine just picked CHINATOWN BEAT for its Best Crime Fiction 2006 list, adding to the buzz and heat around this book. Here's why it's worth reading:

A piece of jade, carved with ideograms that relate to phrases that sound like the I Ching: that's the key to the actions of a Chinese mistress named Mona in New York's Chinatown. Although she's not the protagonist of Henry Chang's first detective mystery, her movements drive the plot from its inception. Chinese detective Jack Yu is caught between "old Chinatown" as spelled out in his father's life and death (and Jack's own traumatic experience as a teen) and "new Chinatown" with its gangs and power struggles (well actually, that's not so new, but perhaps more in-your-face and dangerous than it used to be). And it takes him a while to penetrate the overlapping stories around the death of a "benevolent society" leader, Uncle Four, to discover Mona's driving plan and persuasions behind the scene.

Gritty, definitely in the noir category, penetrated by dark dreams and omens, CHINATOWN BEAT is a great "first mystery." The poet side of me is especially intrigued by Chang's use of fortune-telling phrases and rhythms, his interleaving of language, image, and his abrupt transitions among characters and situations. It's a choppy, jittery tale -- but with an implication that the multiple Chinese languages behind it are forcing that sensation, as they butt up against each other, against translation, and against change.

I'd read it again.

Necessary Tension: Henry Chang's Classic Noir, YEAR OF THE DOG (2008)

Soho Crime brought out Chang's second Jack Yu book in November, YEAR OF THE DOG, and it's a solid sequel to his debut New York City-based police procedural, CHINATOWN BEAT. It opens with a short description of the characteristics of the Dog as sign for the 11th year in the 12-year repeating Chinese cycle: likeable, fearless, charismatic, the Dog endows the year with masculine characteristics of struggle, perseverance, and faith.

And there's no question that Jack Yu needs all of those, as he starts the holiday season in the Ninth Precinct, new to him, where his Chinese-ness is less part of the fabric of each day's work. At least, that was the idea. Back in the 0-5 (in CHINATOWN BEAT) he'd seen his ethnicity be both blessing and curse, as it labeled him and set him up for discriminatory treatment, while also equipping him to understand the Chinatown networks and criminal paths more readily. Probably the toughest part was the unending conflict with his friends from childhood, Tat Louie and Wing Lee. The three youths had been so close that they considered themselves blood brothers, hingdaai. (Chang uses italics for Chinese terms most of the time; he also uses them for inner thoughts of whichever character is at center stage, as well as occasionally for emphasis or for "word as word." Yes, it's a bit confusing. But bear with it -- the tale is worth reading.) Tat Louie heads up a criminal association, and his connection with Jack keeps biting the cop.

In YEAR OF THE DOG that connection finally resolves. But first the darkness and cold permeate every aspect of Jack's life, from his dead father to his strong but confused ladyfriend Alexandra to the drum roll of death and destruction beating on him. Chang crafts a classic noir thriller as he imbues the holidays -- Christmas, American New Year, Chinese New Year -- with desolation, threat, and desperation. No question, the gang life and the housing projects where it thrives foster this set of horrors. Quality of life is subzero, even when there's plenty of cash on hand from robberies and extortion. Behind the scenes is the poison of the snakeheads, too -- the criminal corporations that bring illegal immigrants to the land of plenty, then hold them captive for a lifetime through a global reach to family members trapped in China.

Chang's intense plotting is complicated by a need to provide a map to the complexity that Jack takes for granted: Chinese of various geographical and linguistic roots, who've arrived in separate waves in New York (as they have also on the West Coast; Jack and the criminals around him are still dealing with a West Coast portion of the earlier book). And in this Asian version of the Sopranos, family connections come before all else. Until they snap and backfire, of course.

Jack's first holiday deaths come from a Taiwanese family that appears to have died in a murder-suicide. In parallel, Tat Louie and his gang are suffering a string of robberies that appear to be inside jobs -- a quick way for the gang to lose face, with losses outside its control. New York is a huge city, but the Chinese populations in it are so interwoven that it's just a matter of time before Lucky Louie's problems become Jack's also.

And yet it's an unassociated and very nasty piece of violence, based securely in racism, hate, and drug use, that tears into Jack before the collision with Tat Louie can take place; he survives, but the main victim doesn't, and couldn't, considering how he was abused and beaten:

Jack didn't know if it was because of the side effects from the painkillers, but he felt sickened. He knew that this horror went on every day in this city, in America, in the world. ... Jack took a breath, closed the report. In his head he was hearing grievous groaning and sobbing, the banshee wail welling up around the sad street of funeral parlors across from the playgrounds of his youth.

Meanwhile, the dying weeks of a small-time Chinese bookie are about to coalesce into the book's rare moments of sweetness, as well as becoming the catalyst for Lucky Louie's propulsion into Jack's duty roster. Sai Go is the bookie, and he has terminal cancer. Long since isolated and without family, he has only his "business" and the people who meet his needs -- for food, haircuts, and such. Through his grief and fear, clarity emerges:

An underground life full of careless sins, chasing the dragon of good fortune. The dragon was devouring him from inside now. All part of the same evil. He was part of the trail of dirty money that travels in a circle.

By the time the firecrackers and street dancing of the Chinese New Year arrive, to mark the turn of year from Dog to Pig, Jack Yu will know a lot more about what has threatened him and the families around him. Chang offers a twist of hope at the end of the volume -- but if you've been reading carefully, you know that Jack Yu's life has just set him up for further danger and risk.

Developing a series and at the same time opening up the complexities of Asian life in New York City has taken Chang onto challenging ground. I look forward to more from this writer, and to further exploration of how he braids the danger, despair, and courage that make up policing in any congested urban area -- New York to San Francisco.

Reflections: Mysteries Set in China

Last night's visit here by Eliot Pattison focused on his colonial American "Bone Rattler" series, but he is probably better known as the author of the Inspector Shan (pronounced "sh-ah-n") series, set in Chinese-occupied Tibet and occasionally in Beijing. Pattison gave a cover blurb to Lisa Brackmann for her current best-seller, Rock Paper Tiger, which he enjoyed very much. Pattison's "justice fiction" deals almost entirely with mid-life adults and older ones, seekers and teachers. Brackmann's is set in the gaming world of younger adults. And I've been thinking about other mysteries that connect with China.

Probably the earliest ones I read were Robert Van Gulik's "Judge Dee" mysteries. I didn't realize until this afternoon that these are from ancient Chinese tradition -- something I found out in an article by Professor George Demko that outlines English-language Chinese mysteries through 1990: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gjdemko/china.htm

Also on our shelves here, of course, are the mysteries by Qiu Xiaolong, starting with A Loyal Character Dancer, which features teamwork between Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau and Inspector Catherin Rohn of the U.S. Marshals, trying to solve a missing persons case. This one gives good insight into modern urban life in China, as well as peering into the relationship of the triads and the Chinese government.

As a glance at a world map makes immediately clear, China is made up of many formerly autonomous nation-states, and a wide range of climates, too. Helpful to me in shattering some preconceptions about "the Chinese" who arrived in America are the New York City Chinatown novels by Henry Chang -- who sorts out family, group, and regional affiliations among the arrivals. New to my tongue and thinking are words/regions like Fukien. Chang outlines how different groups have immigrated during different periods, as he takes us into the investigative world of Detective Jack Yu. (Note that Chang's web site is mostly out of date, but it is now announcing the final book of his dark and complex Chinatown Trilogy, Red Jade, coming out this fall.)

That takes me to the Lydia Chin mysteries by S. J. Rozan -- who is not Chinese herself but clearly knows the Chinatown world, as well as investigative process. Her most recent, The Shanghai Moon, delighted me with its twists and finale.

And for one more very different direction, there's Deep Creek by Dana Hand -- probing the anti-Chinese sentiments of America in 1887, through the struggles of Idaho lawman Joe Vincent to solve the murder of more than thirty Chinese workers. Vincent's connections with Chinese investigator Lee Loi and mountain guide Grace Sundown yield a page-turner with an intensity that can be surprising in what appears at first glance to be a historical novel, but turns out to be an artfully crafted crime and justice narrative.

As some of us were saying last night, mysteries set in other landscapes give us a swift way to grasp not just the differences of land and language, but also the otherwise indescribable differences in global culture. For a land as large and varied as China, I'm looking forward to reading more of these books with continued variety. If I never get there in person, at least I'll have an updated and deepened sense of what I'm missing.

More Crime Fiction to Track Down: Christopher West's China Series, and the British Crime Fiction of Ruth Dudley Edwards

I just finished reading an advance copy of Henry Chang's November release, RED JADE, which is the third in his Chinatown trilogy featuring Detective Jack Yu. Jack's home turf is New York City's Chinatown; RED JADE picks up the trails of two killers that eluded Jack in Chinatown Beat and Year of the Dog. Sometimes it takes me a while to decide how to shape a review, so while I mull this one over, I've been looking around ... and pulled off the shelf the Summer 2006 issue of Mystery Readers Journal. This issue features "Murder in the Far East" (wish it said "Asia" instead). Ten articles and an extra sidebar introduce work by authors who link their mysteries to Japan and China, and others go to India, Laos, and other Asian locations. It's a stunning collection of articles, packed into 80 pages of focused, passionate writing; look around for a copy or see if you can get a back issue from Mystery Readers International (http://www.mysteryreaders.org).

The trouble with browsing here, of course, is discovering authors I hadn't realized I'd missed. Now added to my list: Christopher West, whose books set in China begin with Death of a Blue Lantern (HarperCollins UK 1994, Berkeley Prime Crime 1998). I also found West's web site (http://www.christopherwest.info -- careful with the suffix, there are other authors named Christopher West), and the very enjoyable linked blog.

Most frustrating: This is the second time this week I've found an author whose books have flown onto the "must catch up" list. The other one is Ruth Dudley Edwards. Born in Dublin, her mysteries are set in England, as far as I can tell from a quick look at the one we've got here (Matricide at St Martin's) and at her website, which emphasizes her roles as journalist and satirist and her enduring connection to Ireland. And what makes me convinced that I need to read her work is the presence of a note of thanks to her in the acknowledgments in Stuart Neville's new book Collusion. Anyone thanked so simply and sincerely by Neville has to be worth tracking down and reading, I figure.

I'm not just reading "foreign" mysteries this week -- I doubled up and read an advance copy of the newest Vermont romantic suspense novel from Carla Neggers, and it's a keeper. Reviews ahead, as things settle into place. And I haven't forgotten about that Dennis Lehane one ... what an amazing season of mysteries being released. Sure wish this were the only thing I needed to get done.

Oops -- heading back to the kitchen to preserve some of the garden's harvest. That's the really tight deadline, with the second half of September just arriving.

Global Mysteries: Good News from Soho Crime

When Eliot Pattison's latest Shan detective novel PRAYER OF THE DRAGON, set in Chinese-occupied Tibet, came out from Soho Crime in hardcover in December, eyebrows flew: Once a paperback line, Soho Crime is now investing in impressive mysteries in trim, well-made hardback form. Times have changed.

Today the imprint announced the debut of a new crime series set in Brazil, BLOOD OF THE WICKED by Leighton Gage. (Watch for a review later in February.) Yes, it's another hardcover, adding to a sequence that has recently included crime fiction set in Laos, the Gaza, and Australia, as well as New York's Chinatown (Henry Chang's CHINATOWN BEAT).

Doubling this good news is: Soho is about to clone itself, adding a fresh imprint under the name Soho Constable -- which features mysteries by British authors.

I've already contacted a fine carpenter: Our three-case section of "Foreign and British" mysteries here is going to need a lot of expansion.

Coming in April: A Supernatural Mystery Set in Inida -- Shilpa Agarwal's HAUNTING BOMBAY

Soho Crime is a favorite here at Kingdom Books, for its steady commitment to publishing both new and classic mysteries written is settings outside America. That includes Leighton Gage's police procedurals set in Brazil; Eliot Pattison's Inspector Shan series in Chinese-occupied Tibet; Garry Disher's Australian crime novels; the French detective series by Cara Black; and books set in Laos, Thailand, Korea, and more. It also includes Henry Chang's Chinatown (New York) mysteries.

This April, Soho Press -- not the crime group, but the enfolding larger organization -- brings out a thick and satisfying first novel from Shilpa Agarwal, set in Bombay, India, in 1960. Is HAUNTING BOMBAY a mystery? It's certainly a ghost story, and it includes deaths, disappearances, dramatic moments of courage and shame. Thirteen-year-old Pinky, growing up in her grandmother's home after the death of her mother, lacks control or power over most aspects of her life. In some ways, she's content to leave decisions and choices in the hands of her beloved Maji, who embraces and adores her, telling her stories of India, teaching her to pray to the gods, feeding and cosseting her. But there are shadows in this paradise within the upper-class bungalow: jealousy from her aunt and cousins, a dark remnant of a missing child, tensions among the live-in servants that reflect terrifying mistakes that have been firmly put away without discussion. Pinky's insecurity and the pivotal space she occupies in the three-generation household lead to a Garden-of-Eden style struggle toward knowledge. And then there is the Fall, the ejection from Eden, the fierce hauntings that try to steal the very breath from her small body on the verge of womanhood.

Sustained tension and risk alternate with the freshness of exploring another culture, from food to toilet to clothing and then to family structures and loyalty. At moments in the book, when Pinky and her sensitive cousin Dheer caught the scent of fenugreek or other spices symbolic in the Bombay household, I swore I could savor a whiff of that haunting myself. And some of the aromas are not so welcome. Here is the sensory moment that announces one of the more ominous moments in the early part of the book, when a parade of hermaphrodites threatens to curse and offers to bless babies along its route:

The double-decker bus, reeking of stale urine and undigested fried lunch, now contemplated a full shutdown in front of the Empress Café while the enraged driver coaxed it back to life, with a solid beating by a rusted pipe. After the engine finally sputtered to ignite, the driver blared the bulb horn and veered onto the road, where he overtook a contingent of Fiats and narrowly missed three lunching cows.

Although nearly every character in Pinky's snug world grows and changes in this novel, their moments of bravery are mostly small ones, quick sharp efforts to exert themselves in the face of the ghosts in their lives. I enjoyed especially the way Agarwal paints the values of the Bombay family and the attitudes around love in its varied forms. I wish the book's ending were a bit richer in terms of Pinky's ability to seize and savor the life she carves out -- but that's a small quibble for a book of wide sweeping imagery and unforgettable characters. Pinky in particular is the child in most of us: not quite ready to leave home or the arms of the one person she's sure really loves her.

So yes, this is a literary novel, not a conventional mystery -- but in its parallels to the hauntings of Poe's stories and to the hot pulse of today's vampire narratives, HAUNTING BOMBAY earns a place within the genre, and I'm glad to have it appearing on our shelves. Watch for copies in April.

So it vanished.
Along with a million other stories that haunt Bombay in its darkest, deepest, more naked core.

Story Collections to Savor, John Sandford, Soho Crime, D. P. Lyle

There's something about the on-rushing holiday season that makes a good collection of short stories especially welcome -- a way to grab some entertainment in a small pocket of time, a chance to savor the compact and intense writing of an already favorite author or sample an unfamiliar one, and at its best, a way to place the heavy demands of the American end-of-year culture back into perspective.

So I'm delighted to have three interesting collections to describe. I hope you'll take advantage of the season and dip in.

First -- because the editor is among the top crime fiction authors of our time, and because his introduction is so significant -- consider THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 2017, edited by the inimitable John Sandford. Author of some 40 novels, best known for his "Prey" series (it started with Rules of Prey about 1989), Sandford also has a gift few authors can boast: He can write compellingly ABOUT writing. Here, from his introduction, are some guidelines for the ideal short story:

The story must be tight and well written; a novel can take a few fumbles without much damage, but a short story really suffers from them.

The opening must be catchy and quick and set a mood -- the story should be rolling with the first line. No space here for the dark and stormy night. ... [He quotes from a story by C. J. Box.]

Scene-setting should be integral to the story, part of the fabric rather than long blocks of exposition. The scene-setting ideally should contribute to the mood and texture of the story. [This, he illustrates with a PI -- that is, private investigator -- story from Charles John Harper.]

Now, we get to character. The physical description of the characters is critical, and what the reader sees in this physical description should tell us much about the character's personality. There's a reason for that: it creates an immediate image in the reader's mind, so that laborious explication isn't necessary [Fedora, double-breasted suit, smoking Lucky Stroke Green? Or an excerpt from Dan Bevacqua's story of a thin man with an orange beard and a tattoo over each eyebrow.]

And finally: there has to be some resolution. You can't just end a short story; you have to wind it up. 

Sandford's picks for the collection -- drawn from a larger pool provided by Otto Penzler -- also include stories by Jeffrey Deaver, Brendan DuBois, Loren Estleman, Craig Johnson, William Kent Krueger, and Joyce Carol Oates, among others. They are all over the map (and timeline), and they demonstrate the many delicious flavors of suspense, risk, complexity, and satisfaction that a mystery story can best serve up. Yumm.

Should you happen to be frustrated by today's phrases that carefully edge around the religious roots of year-end festivals, here's balm for your wounds: THE USUAL SANTAS, a bluntly Christmas-focused collection from the always inspiring Soho Crime unit of Soho Press, with an introduction by British crime fiction leader Peter Lovesey. Lovesey's intro chants gleefully the wide range of mystery types included here: from cyber criminals to Sherlock Holmes, and from dark noir to tender kindness to deep mysteries of life and death (including a ghost story).

If you're already savoring some of the Soho Crime authors, this collection is like a dessert buffet. Recognize any of these names? Helene Tursten, Mick Herron, Martin Limón, Timothy Hallinan, Teresa Dovalpage, Mette Ivie Harrison, Colin Cotterill, Ed Lin, Stuart Neville, Ted Goldberg, Henry Chang, James R. Benn, Lene Kaaberbøl & Agnete Friis, Sujita Massey, Gary Corby, Cara Black, Stephanie Barron, and of course Lovesey himself ... I was drooling just from the Contents page, mentally rehearsing the locations from Thailand to Chinatown, England and Ireland, Utah, Scandinavia ... and timelines that include Ancient Greece as well as World War II.

I haven't yet reviewed Sujita Massey -- her first Soho Crime book comes out soon though, so I will -- and I was briefly stumped by Teresa Dovalpage, a Cuban writer whose first Soho book wasn't crime fiction. But in 2018 the press brings out her first mystery, featuring the characters introduced here, a great chance to taste the work ahead of time.

Don't expect me to say my favorites; there is still time to re-read the collection in the holiday mode, and I will probably change my mind at least twice more. Every one of these stories is worth multiple readings. I might have to give several copies as gifts!

Last in this group is a collection that's not intended to be mystery/crime fiction, but happens to be edited by -- with a story by -- an expert teacher in the field, D. P. Lyle. The books is called IT'S ALL IN THE STORY -- CALIFORNIA and is an "anthology of short fiction" from the Southern California Writers Association. The level of work is uneven, but it's interesting to see the wide range of approaches among this gathering of Golden State scribblers. It's not a pick for crime fiction readers (unless you are a "completist" in terms of Lyle). But if you have a Golden State itch, this will provide a good scratch, with appearances by William Randolph Hearst and by San Francisco's Russian immigrants, as well as mention of San Jan Capistrano. And of course the gold rush!

Wishing you many moments to read in the upcoming months. It will surely add some spice -- and suspense! -- to the season's special treats.

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

Summer Reading: Intense Mysteries from Established Authors

Here are some terrific releases for this summer, to put into the beach bag or suitcase.

David Downing, JACK OF SPIES. First in a new series, espionage and an unforgettable protagonist, Jack McColl, in the threatening season as the Great War becomes inevitable. Reviewed already: http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/2014/05/world-war-i-espionage-from-david.html ... Full set of Downing reviews, here.http://kingdombks.blogspot.com/search?q=David+downing

Henry Chang, DEATH MONEY. Fourth in the Jack Yu series, set in Chinatown, best yet. Review over the weekend, if I can make time. Missed out on the earlier ones? Reviews here.

Garry Disher, HELL TO PAY. Let's hope this is the start of a new series .... yes, it's that good. Review to follow soon. If you haven't yet read Disher's Australian police procedurals and very dark crime fiction, here's a great place to start. We keep mentioning Disher and Dave and I fight (gently) over who gets which ones first; see why, here.

Anna Loan-Wilsey, A SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT. Third in the Hattie Davish historical mysteries, well plotted and paced, again showing that this author can take her material outside the soft "historical" stereotype with her assertive and intriguing sleuth. June 24 pub date, review soon. Loan-Wilsey's first book was amazing: review for that one, here.

Taylor Stevens, THE CATCH. Exceeds even the high bar already set by Stevens for the androgenous and tough Vanessa Munroe, in another global thriller. July 15 pub date; review in early July. I wait all year for the next one, on edge (really). See why, here.

Julia Keller SUMMER OF THE DEAD. West Virginia, third to feature prosecutor Bell Elkins, full of action, suspense, and bitter questions. Pub date is August, and review will run sooner, as it's worth pre-ordering (and lucky you, if you can attend an author event). Get ready with a look at her earlier work here.

Four Way Books and a Truly Free Gift of Literature

As Four Way Books celebrated its 15th anniversary this year, poetry events brought fresh attention to its authors. But in addition to single-author collections, mostly of poetry, Four Way has produced some great anthologies. Thanks to a generous gift of books from the press, Kingdom Books is making two of these available for FREE (really truly) with any order placed here between now and March 2009 (or until we run out of copies0. Just ask for one with your order, and tell us which one you'd like.

The first is Laure-Ann Bosselaar's entertaining collection NEVER BEFORE: POEMS ABOUT FIRST EXPERIENCE. The anthology includes poems from strongly established poets like Ellen Bass, Robin Becker, Kimiko Hahn, Edward Hirsch, Philip Levine, Thomas Lux, and Carol Moldaw; from New England poets whose work deserves more attention, like Joan Aleshire, Meg Kearney, Dzvinia Orlowsky, and Jim Schley; and from people who both write and teach the craft, like Anne-Marie Macari and Baron Wormser. There are 104 poets contributing, so ... the diversity is terrific and there's plenty of humor, as well as insight. A great book for a winter afternoon!

The second is the first volume in Four Way's series of Shade anthologies, SHADE 2004. This one includes both fiction and poetry. Here's the list of authors:

Poetry
Claire Bateman
Michael Burkard
Tina Chang
Paula Cisewski
Kevin Clark
Cynie Cory
Jim Daniels
Nancy Eimers
Chad Faries
Judith Hall
Mark Halliday
Forrest Hamer
Terrance Hayes
Brian Henry
Bob Hicok
Christopher Kennedy
Ted Kooser
Jaimee Kuperman
Patrick Lawler
Louise Mathias
Gretchen Mattox
Pablo Medina
Lydia Melvin
Donna Munro
William Olsen
Dzvinia Orlowsky
Kevin Prufer
David Rivard
Dana Roeser
Mary Ruefle
Catherine Sasanov
Hugh Seidman
Elizabeth Skurnick
Maura Stanton
Thomas Swiss
J.C. Todd
Robert VanderMolen
Karen Whalley


Fiction
Stephen Beachy
Lewis Buzbee
Kristy Eldredge
Amy Holman
Samantha Hunt
Jonathan Pugh
Ron Rash
Christine Schutt
Diane Williams
Edra Ziesk

How can you resist? Many thanks to Four Way for this exciting gift. Claim your copy now, please, so we can spread these around.