One red bastard

Format:

Book

Title:

One red bastard

Author:

Lin, Ed.

ISBN:

9780312660901

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Minotaur Books, 2012.

Physical Description:

280 pages ; 22 cm

Summary:

When 1976 New York's Chinatown is thrown into turmoil by Chairman Mao's daughter's efforts to defect, detective-in-training Robert Chow is challenged to prove his girlfriend's innocence after a Chinese representative she has interviewed is found dead.

Subject(s):

Police -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction.

Chinese Americans -- Fiction.

Chinatown (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Chinatown (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction.

New York (State) -- New York.

New York (State) -- New York -- Chinatown.

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Fiction.

Mystery fiction.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Woodburn Public Library	Lin	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In One Red Bastard, Ed Lin's thrilling sequel to the highly acclaimed Snakes Can't Run, "reminiscent of Elmore Leonard... Compulsively readable" (Don Lee), it's the fall of 1976. New York's Chinatown is in turmoil over news that Mao's daughter is seeking asylum in the U.S. The series hero Robert Chow is a neighborhood detective in training, and he is thrilled when his girlfriend Lonnie scores an interview with the Chinese representative of Mao's daughter. But hours after the interview, the man is found dead. Lonnie, the last person to see him alive, is the main suspect.

As Lonnie is subjected to increasing amounts of intimidation from his fellow policemen, who want to close the case, Robert is tempted to reach into his own bag of dirty tricks. Will he stay on the right side of the law, or will his loyalty to Lonnie get the better of him? Find out in this exciting and fast-paced mystery set in one of New York's most fascinating neighborhoods.

Author Notes

ED LIN is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards, one each for his previous books Waylaid , This Is a Bust, and Snakes Can't Run . Lin, a native New Yorker of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, was awarded the Booklist Editor's Choice and Top Ten First Novel for Waylaid.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Tensions in America's relationship with China and Taiwan form the backdrop for Lin's compelling third mystery featuring Chinese-American Robert Chow of the NYPD (after 2010's Snakes Can't Run). By the fall of 1976, Chow has moved on from being the department's token to real policing, but his personal and professional lives collide when his journalist girlfriend, Lonnie, becomes the prime suspect in a case with potential international repercussions. Chen Xiaochuan, the official representative for Mao Tse-tung's daughter, who's seeking asylum in the States, is bludgeoned to death in a Chinatown park, and Lonnie is the last person known to have seen him after interviewing him for her newspaper. Possible motives can be found all over the political spectrum, complicating the investigation. Lin offers a vivid picture of an earlier Manhattan Chinatown than S.J. Rozan, whose fans are likely to warm to the street-savvy Chow, still coming to grips with the horrors of his Vietnam War tour of duty. Author tour. Agent: Kirby Kim, William Morris. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

It's 1976. The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China duel by proxy, pulling NYPD Officer Robert Chow into their murderous wake. As Taiwan and Beijing jockey for position in the diplomatic game that will determine which of them the U.S. will recognize as the real China, word comes that the late Mao Tse-tung's daughter Li Na is seeking asylum in America. It seems like a plum when Robert's girlfriend Lonnie, a Newswire reporter, snags an interview with Chen Xiaochuan, Li's representative, but everything goes haywire when Chen is found bashed to death in Roosevelt Park, his finger severed, soon afterward. Miraculously, the cops don't arrest Lonnie, even though she was the last person to see Chen alive. But clouds of suspicion form around her, her own news organization stops running her stories and Robert, who's already under official pressure to clear the case, finds himself even more motivated. His rounds take him not only to representatives of both regimes but among such sharply differentiated figures as agitator Lincoln Chen, aka "Mr. Revolution"; "anti-Chinese Chinaman" Byron Su; and Artie Yee, who seems curiously unconcerned that someone's torched the offices of Inside Chinatown before it could cover the big story. The mystery is both confusing and obvious, but Lin (Snakes Can't Run, 2010, etc.) has a rewardingly sharp eye for both the issues that divide the denizens of New York's Chinatown and the features that bind them together, as Robert continues to be bound to his ex-girlfriend Barbara, in spite of it all.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Lin's engaging Robert Chow series (Snakes Can't Run, 2010) continues. Just months after Chow broke up a human smuggling operation in New York's Chinatown, his girlfriend, Lonnie, gets the chance to interview a representative for Mao's daughter, Li Na, who may be seeking asylum in the U.S. (It is 1976. Mao is dead, Madame Mao is in prison for her membership in the Gang of Four, and the People's Republic is in turmoil.) But shortly after the interview, the representative is murdered, and Lonnie is the last person who saw him alive. Chow, on track to become a detective after joining the NYPD to be the sole Chinese face of the police in Chinatown, suddenly finds clearing Lonnie his top priority. As in previous novels, Lin does a fine job sketching a mid-seventies Manhattan beset by financial crisis, a Chinatown roiled by events half a world away, and the and family and community dynamics of Chinatown's insular inhabitants. Readers drawn to crime fiction that illuminates other eras and other cultures will find much to savor here.--Gaughan, Thomas Copyright 2010 Booklist