RED JADE

Detective Jack Yu, who seems destined never to get out of Chinatown (Year of the Dog, 2008, etc.), catches a case that takes him all the way across the country—to Seattle’s Chinatown.

No simple domestic case of murder and suicide, no matter how heart-wrenching or emotionally fraught, can keep Jack’s eyes from the prize: nailing the perp who ventilated Jack’s one-time blood brother Tat “Lucky” Louie, a stalwart of the Ghost tong, now comatose after a disagreement over some stolen watches left several victims, including Hip Ching leader Uncle Four, dead. The police have arrested limo driver Johnny Wong for Uncle Four’s murder, but Jack is more interested in another fugitive: Keung “Eddie” Ng, whom his best sources have placed in Seattle. Seizing the opportunity to squire his friend Alexandra Lee-Chow to Seattle for a conference, Jack makes himself at home among the West Coast yahoos like the biker who wishes he’d quit “harassing us true Americans,” little realizing that he’s only a hairsbreadth from another person of interest. Uncle Four’s mistress Mona has also fled to Seattle with a stash of currency, jewels and (naturally) watches that have made her the target of some former professional colleagues just as clever as Jack, and a good deal more ruthless.

A sharp mix of action, post-Wire procedural and cultural commentary aimed squarely at readers who aren’t overly attached to happy, or even conclusive, endings.