Ed Lin – författare

Set in New York’s Chinatown in 1976, this sharp and gritty novel is a mystery set against the backdrop of a city in turmoil

Robert Chow is a Vietnam vet and an alcoholic. He’s also the only Chinese American cop on the Chinatown beat, and the only police officer who can speak Cantonese. But he’s basically treated like a token, trotted out for ribbon cuttings and community events.

So he shouldn’t be surprised when his superiors are indifferent to his suspicions that an old Chinese woman’s death may have actually been a murder. But he sure is angry. With little more than his own demons to fuel him, Chow must take matters into his own hands.

Rich with the details of its time and place, this homage to noir will appeal to fans of S.J. Rozan and Michael Connelly.

This epic of Chinatown Noir is the riveting sequel to This Is a Bust

Set in New York City in 1976, Snakes Can’t Run finds NYPD detective Robert Chow still haunted by the horrors of his past and relegated to tedious undercover work. 

When the bodies of two undocumented Chinese men are found under the Brooklyn Bridge underpass, Chow is drawn into the case. 

Most of the officers in his precinct are concerned with a terrorist group targeting the police, but Chow’s investigation puts him on the trail of a ring of ruthless human smugglers who call themselves the snakeheads.

As Chow gets closer to solving the murder, dangerous truths about his own family’s past begin to emerge.

Steeped in retro urban attitude, and ripe with commentary on minorities’ roles in American society, this gritty procedural will appeal to fans of George Pelecanos and S.J. Rozan.

In this thrilling sequel to the highly acclaimed Snakes Can’t Run, detective Robert Chow must wrestle with his own morality to solve a murder, set against the backdrop of gritty Chinatown following the Vietnam War.

It’s the fall of 1976, and New York’s Chinatown is in turmoil over news that Mao’s daughter is seeking asylum in America. Vietnam vet Robert Chow is now a detective-in-training, and he is thrilled when his girlfriend, Lonnie, scores a once-in-a-lifetime interview with the Chinese representative of Mao’s daughter. But hours after their meeting, the man is found dead.

Lonnie, the last person to see him alive, is the main suspect. The police are restless to close the case, and as Lonnie is subjected to increasing amounts of intimidation, Robert is tempted to reach into his own bag of dirty tricks to protect her.

Will Chow stay on the right side of the law, or will his loyalty to Lonnie provoke him to turn to darker methods? Find out in this exciting and fast-paced mystery, set in one of New York’s most fascinating neighborhoods . . .

August is Ghost Month in Taiwan—a time to commemorate the dead: burn incense, visit shrines, honor ancestors, and avoid unlucky situations, large purchases, and bodies of water. Jing-nan, a young man who runs a food stand in a bustling Taipei night market, doesn''t consider himself superstitious, but this August is going to haunt him no matter what he does.

He is shocked to the core when he learns his ex-girlfriend from high school has been murdered. She was found scantily clad and shot on the side of a highway where she was selling betel nuts to passing truck drivers. Beyond his harrowing grief for his lost love, Jing-nan is confused by the news. "Betel nut beauties" are usually women in the most desperate of circumstances; the job is almost as taboo as prostitution. But Julia Huang had been the valedictorian of their high school, and the last time Jing-nan spoke to her she was enrolled in NYU''s honor program, far away in New York. The facts don''t add up. Julia''s parents don''t think so either, and the police seem to have closed the case without asking any questions.

The Huangs beg Jing-nan to do some investigating on his own—reconnect with old classmates, see if he can learn anything about Julia''s life that she might have kept from them. Reluctantly, he agrees, for Julia''s sake. But nothing can prepare him for what he learns—or how it will change his life.