The Ninja Daughter

September 23, 2019
Set in Los Angeles, Eldridge’s wild ride of a first novel marries Kill Bill with Killing Eve. Lily Wong, who has secretly become a ninja, has dedicated herself to protecting women since her sister’s murder. First, she must stop a Ukrainian gangster, Dmitry Romanko, from abusing his wife and son, and return them to the safety of a shelter for abused women. Second, Lily takes on the enigmatic thug J Tran, who has created a scandal by publicly assaulting cocktail waitress Mia Mikkelson. Mia fears he’ll return to kill her. After Lily witnesses Tran fatally stab two men on a Koreatown street, she learns that the brazen killer hides a lot of secrets, including some that point to several more bodies, notably including 20-year-old Julie Stanton, the mayor’s goddaughter, who recently died in an apparent hiking accident. Lily eventually identifies a villain behind Julie’s death worse than any she’s previously encountered. Readers will want to see more of the feisty Lily. Eldridge expertly mines both domestic suspense and action thriller.

Natalie Naudus delivers this first installment in an exciting new series featuring Lily Wong, a martial arts expert who is dedicated to protecting abused women. Lily isn't your usual L.A. freelancer. Her father, descended from Norwegians, runs the family's Asian restaurant, while her elegant Chinese mother doesn't cook at all, and Lily, despite her heritage, turned to Japan to learn her fighting skills. Naudus believably renders a wide variety of accents, including Cantonese, Mandarin, Ukrainian, Norwegian, and Korean, as Lily gets herself into and out of trouble with L.A.'s underworld. Altering her tone and tempo, Naudus distinguishes between narrative and Lily's thoughts, and completely electrifies the fight scenes. Listeners beware: You'll have a craving for Asian takeout while awaiting Lily's next action-packed adventure. C.B.L. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine