Incensed

July 25, 2016
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.

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 Taiwan's Mid-Autumn Festival, but that's 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 he's a petty criminal--Big Eye is surrounded by those--but because he's 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 Lee's family firm. She shows real aptitude for the work--and evidence of musical gifts far greater than those of Nancy, Jing-nan's girlfriend, who plays in the band Boar Pour More. Chong, when Jing-nan runs into him, seems to be an inoffensive guy who says it's over between him and Mei-Ling anyway. But it's 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 Lin's greater interest in worldbuilding than storytelling, will be rewarded, as in Ghost Month (2014), with a richly detailed insider's tour of contemporary Taiwan. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2016

Jing-nan, who runs a dumpling stand in Taipei's busy night market, knows that Taiwan's Mid-Autumn Festival is all about family. But must he follow up on a request from his gangster uncle, Big Eye, to take his 16-year-old daughter, Mei-ling, away from the bad influence of her biker boyfriend? Well, yes, especially with two of Big Eye's thugs following along to make sure it happens. But Mei-ling has secrets that prove dangerous. Following Lin's successful Soho Crime debut, Ghost Month.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2016
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)