Publisher's Weekly Review
Taiwan's Autumn Moon Festival-a time for family-provides the backdrop for Lin's worthy sequel to 2014's Ghost Month. Jing-nan, owner of Unknown Pleasures, a food stall in Taipei's Shilin Night Market, has been summoned by his gangster uncle, Big Eye. Big Eye has decided that his 16-year-old daughter, Mei-Ling, needs to be separated from her boyfriend, a petty criminal; Jing-nan, as family, is chosen to be the reluctant babysitter of the insufferable teenager. Ensuring that Jing-nan keeps a close watch on Mei-Ling are two of Big Eye's thugs, who are willing to impress upon Jing-nan in any way necessary the need to take tender loving care of his young cousin. When Mei-Ling disappears and her boyfriend ends up dead, Jing-nan must take on members of Taipei's underworld to save his cousin and himself. Readers will be as caught up in Lin's rich descriptions of Taiwan's sights, sounds, and mouthwatering foods as they are in his intriguing characters. Agent: Kirby Kim, William Morris. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Chen Jing-nan is reunited with his uncle, colorful Taiwanese gangster Big Eye, just in time to get saddled with an impossible task.Families typically come together during Taiwans Mid-Autumn Festival, but thats not why Big Eye is reaching out to Jing-nan. His daughter, Mei-Ling, has all the anti-authoritarian habits of other 16-year-old girls plus one that puts her over the top: her romance with Chong, whom Big Eye hates not because hes a petty criminalBig Eye is surrounded by thosebut because hes a darkie from Indonesia. Since Mei-Ling refuses to give him up, her father has resolved to exile her to Taipei so that Jing-nan, assisted by Big Eye lieutenants Gao Min-kung and Whistle, can keep a watchful eye on her from his perch at Unknown Pleasures, the skewer and stew stand he runs in the Shilin Night Market. For a while things go smoothly. Jing-nan wangles his cousin an internship with his high-powered ex-schoolmate Peggy Lees family firm. She shows real aptitude for the workand evidence of musical gifts far greater than those of Nancy, Jing-nans girlfriend, who plays in the band Boar Pour More. Chong, when Jing-nan runs into him, seems to be an inoffensive guy who says its over between him and Mei-Ling anyway. But its only a matter of time before something goes wrong, and eventually something does, although genre fans on the hunt for mystery and suspense will have checked out long before then. Readers who go the distance, recognizing Lins greater interest in worldbuilding than storytelling, will be rewarded, as in Ghost Month (2014), with a richly detailed insiders tour of contemporary Taiwan. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Family is important in Taiwan, so Jing-nan can't refuse a request from his uncle Big Eye, a powerful figure in the underworld of central Taiwan. Jing-nan, who runs the Unknown Pleasures food stall that he inherited from his parents in Taipei's Shilin Night Market, is a minor celebrity himself, thanks to his deflection of an assailant's bullet with a cast-iron pot he calls Little Fatty. Big Eye needs Jing-nan to keep tabs on his 16-year-old daughter, Mei-ling, to keep her away from an undesirable biker boyfriend, a task Jing-nan takes seriously. He arranges an internship for her, escorts her home at night, and gradually encourages her aspirations as a singer-songwriter. But Mei-ling has a secret, and she adroitly gives Jing-nan the slip on an outing, leading to a potentially deadly showdown involving Big Eye and gang leader Wood Duck. This sequel to Ghost Month (2014) benefits from Lin's trademark humorous touch and comments on Taiwanese society, from food to gangs to religion. Setting is the paramount appeal here, but a strong plot and a cast of intriguing characters make this one a must for fans of international crime fiction.--Leber, Michele Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Jing-nan is a vendor at the night market in Taiwan's capital, Taipei. When he gets a call from his uncle, he knows it's not good news. His gangster relative is about the only family he has left since his parents died. Meanwhile, Jing-nan's 16-year-old cousin Mei Ling wants to be a singing star, and her father has decided she should visit Jing-nan in the big city to get thoughts of such a career and of her unsuitable boyfriend out of her mind. Babysitting a sullen teen is certainly an imposition, but the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for reconnecting with family. Of course the boyfriend turns up, as do some dubious associates of Jing-nan's uncle, but that doesn't worry Jing-man until Mei Ling disappears. -VERDICT The second entry in Lin's "Taipei Night Market" series (after Ghost Month) is an exciting mystery with an intriguing hero and cast of characters who will appeal to readers who like international settings in their crime fiction. Mystery fans enchanted by the Asian night markets visited on numerous Travel Channel shows will enjoy a peek behind the curtain, as Taiwan's history and culture are lightly explored in this story that moves fluidly along to its conclusion. [See Prepub Alert, 4/10/16.]-Dan -Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
