1) "Silver Phoenix" by Cindy Pon
Ai Ling wants to be a dutiful daughter, but surely marrying the vile widower Master Huang is a bad idea. If Ai Ling finds her missing father, then won’t she and her mother be freed from blackmail and manipulation? Ai Ling sets off across the kingdom of Xia to find her vanished father, but finds herself embroiled in both Imperial and mystical intrigue. Her quest is aided by her new friends, the exotically handsome half-Xian Chen Yong and his flirtatious foster brother, Li Rong, both seeking Chen Yong’s birthparents. Together, they rescue gods, fight zombies and travel to dangerous lands where three-eyed men ride flying chariots. Luckily, Ai Ling has newfound powers that aid in their fight against the forces threatening both the trio and the entire land of Xia. Ai Ling is a well-developed protagonist, from her shyness to her great love of food (leading to plentiful mouthwatering descriptions of meals). This fantasy heroine, who shows her spunk with quiet self-determination instead of swordfights, headlines an appealing magical adventure set in a refreshingly non-Western milieu. (Fantasy. 12-14)
2) "Moghul Buffet" by Cheryl Benard
Benard's fiction debut starts out as a crackling mystery set on the Pakistani frontier, but the author's deft blend of humor and suspense lapses into a confusing tangle of subplots. Micky Malone, salesman for a prefab-housing company, gets suckered into a weeklong journey to Peshawar, Pakistan, to close a major deal, The Hotel Khyber Inter-Continental feels frighteningly foreign to novelty-averse Micky, and as his business contact starts making sinister allusions to smuggling, Micky's only comfort lies in his discovery that a female college classmate is living in the area. Fast forward, then, a couple of days, when Iqbal, a big-city detective, is dispatched to Peshawar to investigate Micky's sudden disappearance. Iqbal and Lilly, a journalist, initially focus on Mara Blake, Mickey's college friend, with whom he'd indeed had a brief fling before falling out of sight. But then other bodies start to turn up, suggesting a broader conspiracy. A dizzying cast is introduced before Lilly recognizes the cryptic scrawlings left on the crime scenes as lyrics from a feminist song. Is one of the women--maybe Fatima, a village girl forced into prostitution--the killer? As it turns out, though, Micky isn't dead at all. Ruffled by an unsolicited visit from Fatima, who was impersonating a belly-dancer, he panicked and, with Mara's help, went into hiding in a shed at a remote refugee camp. In a burst of idealistic frenzy born out of crushing boredom, he inspires a pack of Taliban warriors to build a latrine for the women--and, in the meantime, murky explanations of the various killings may or may not hold up under scrutiny, while the author's attempts to weave character sketches into a complex portrait of an Islamic border town also prove only half-successful. The problem: plot and pacing. In her best moments, though, Benard hits a sure tone of fond satire. Still, overall, an overstuffed grab-bag of suspects, victims, and bystanders that invites indifference.
3) "The Flower Master" by Sujata Massey
Agatha-winner Massey’s hardcover debut takes her antiques-buyer sleuth Rei Shimura to Tokyo’s Kayama School of ikebana, where her aunt Norie hopes she’ll learn the ancient art of flower arrangement. Rei is so untalented in ikebana that she earns a rare public reproof from her teacher, Sakura Soto, and an even rarer public defense from Norie. But she hardly has time to join Norie’s plans to apologize by presenting Sakura-san with a pair of scissors before the scissors, 15 minutes after Norie brings them into the school, are found embedded in the teacher’s neck. Gravely courteous Lt. Hata, of the Metropolitan Police, clearly thinks Norie is the prime suspect, but as he’s murmuring noncommital pleasantries to her, Rei is already wondering about the alternatives. What about Natsumi Kayama, the spoiled heiress of the wealthy school, or her twin Takeo, who can’t decide whether he wants to make romantic overtures to Rei or accuse her of stealing his family’s ceramics? What about Mari Kumamori, the Korean student whose pottery Sakura-san had smashed? What about Che Fujisawa, the head of Stop Killing Flowers, who argued that Japan’s demand for fresh flowers endangered thousands of Colombian workers who came into contact with dangerous pesticides? Massey not only fleshes out each of these subplots but weaves them together to illuminate conflicts of old and new in Japanese manners, morals, family, and love.
4) "Bangkok 8" by John Burdett
East and West coexist in a murderous symbiosis in this exotic thriller by British author (and Hong Kong resident) Burdett (The Last Six Million Seconds, 1997, etc.).
This tangled tale of drugs, sex, and political corruption is narrated by Krung Tep (i.e., Bangkok) detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a “half-caste Third World cop who speaks English and French,” has a criminal past, and still does the local drug of choice (“yaa baa”). Burdett kickstarts the tale with a dynamite opening sequence: the discovery of black US Marine William Bradley’s dead body in his Mercedes, filled with seemingly drug-crazed cobras and a giant python wrapped amorously around the torso of the deceased. Sonchai’s investigation, done in tandem with American authorities, and abetted and complicated by gorgeous FBI agent Kimberley Jones, takes us through the meanest and seamiest streets of District 8 (Sonchai’s turf), and introduces us to a beguiling gallery of sinister personages portrayed with black-comic brio. The principals include a beautiful black woman whose relationship to Bradley isn’t initially clear; Sonchai’s pragmatic mother Nong, a retired “bar girl” interested in the commercial potential of Viagra; his crafty boss Colonel Vikorn, who’s a little too cozy with CIA ops in Thailand and abroad; jade mogul (and connoisseur of Bangkok’s thriving sex industry) Sylvester Warren; and a fast-talking transsexual with a sure survival instinct. A Russian nuclear physicist turned pimp, “Barbara Hutton’s jadeite wedding necklace,” and an educational visit to a crocodile farm keep the reader alert—even when Sonchai’s summary descriptions of Bangkok’s history, culture, and economic priorities lapse into exposition and background information clumsily grafted onto the story. Burdett is more successful with Sonchai’s frequent citations of Buddhist wisdom: they’re funny, endearing (and informative) building blocks in the creation of an unusual and interesting protagonist.
Enjoyable, mostly, with a savage payoff and a smoky, acidic aftertaste.
5) "Chinatown Beat" by Henry Chang
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.
6) "China Run" by David Ball
Rich local color mixes uneasily with a conventional—and one-dimensional—chase thriller.
Allison Turk brings nine-year-old stepson Tyler along on her Chinese adventure, culminating in the adoption of a beautiful baby girl named Wen Li. Among the other American parents-to-be are rugged Nash Cameron and his too-obedient wife Claire, single mother Ruth Pollard, and three other couples. In the remote Jiangsu province, on the night before the group is to sign the official papers and leave with their new babies, they receive devastating news from the government. The babies are “unfit” for adoption and will be replaced by others the following day. Unable to part with Wen Li after having spent nearly a week with her, Allison decides to make a run for it, Tyler and her new daughter in tow. If they can make it to Shanghai and the American consulate, they know they’ll be safe. Ruth Pollard and the Camerons and their babies go along, but the other couples, fearful of reprisals, stay behind. Fortunately, Yi Ling, their Chinese interpreter and guide, is undergoing a crisis of conscience about her government’s rigidity, and she responds to Allison’s earnest appeal for help. Emboldened by her liberating decision, Yi Ling commandeers a van and speeds the group away. When her boss, Director Lin, learns what’s happened, the chase is on—and it continues for nearly 300 pages, by car, boat, and foot as the escapees depend on the kindness of strangers (mostly simple villagers) to avoid discovery. Infighting begins almost immediately, mostly over Nash’s efforts to assert control. For Director Lin, finding and returning the babies to the orphanage is a matter of life and death: his. He tries to convince Allison’s husband Marshall to implore (and perhaps betray) her, or the consequences could be dire.
Second-novelist Ball (Empires of Sand, 1999) writes evocatively about Chinese society and customs, but his people fail to convince or engage.
7) "Deshi" by John Donohue
When murder darkens the dojo, martial artist Burke needs all the right moves.
Japanese-American businessman Edward Sakura is the first in a series of homicide victims. But wheeler-dealer Sakura has followed the Way of the Brush. For 30 years, he has faithfully practiced calligraphy, and in the moment before his assailant pulls the trigger, Sakura uses his brush for one last time to exact vengeance from the grave. Enter series hero Connor Burke, serious martial arts student. An advanced black belt in karate like his author, Burke credits his salvation to what he’s learned from Yamashita, his sensei. After years of training, he’s an extraordinary fighter, but his redemption transcends mere physicality. So attuned is he to the spiritual side of martial arts that Yamashita regards him as the stuff senseis are made of. Connor’s older brother, Mickey the homicide cop, similarly impressed, turns to Connor, hoping he can convert the Sakura calligraphy into a workable lead. Eventually, Connor comes through, discovering in the Zenlike clue links to the Chinese secret service, to an iconic sensei with feet of clay, and, most important, to the elusive, furiously sought inka, a MacGuffin in a kimono.
After his lean and literate debut (Sensei, 2003), Donohue produces a talky disappointment more interested in proselytizing than storytelling.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.