Year of the Dog

September 8, 2008
Less a conventional mystery than a study in Chinese-American culture, Chang's second novel (after 2006's Chinatown Beat
) offers another tantalizing glimpse of precinct and street life in Manhattan's Chinatown. When a prosperous family of four dies in their apartment, NYPD Det. Jack Yu determines it is murder/suicide, probably an effort to save face. Saving face, a powerful motivator in Chinese culture, drives many characters, including Yu's boyhood friend, now gang boss, Tat “Lucky” Louie; young turk Koo Jai, who's trying to pull one over on Lucky; and Sai Go, a dying smalltime bookie who wants to keep his dignity. DA Alexandra Lee-Chow, in contrast, embodies the struggles of ordinary Chinese-Americans who are neither crooks nor celebrities. While some may feel there are too many specifics about Chinese takeout meals and the finale is a bit of a copout, Chang deftly keeps the action moving as he brings the Chinatown neighborhood alive in all its guises.

November 15, 2008
In mid-1990s, NYPD detective Jack Yu is assigned to a new precinct after being wounded in the line of duty, but he is still the go-to guy for all things Chinese. Thats how he picks up the murder-suicide of an upper-middle-class Chinese family whose father asphyxiated his family via carbon monoxide poisoning. The case winds back through a holiday season credit-card scam operated by one of the Chinese gangs and designed to leave real families saddled with debt for stolen merchandise. Yu also apprehends the murderers of a young Chinese delivery boy who was killed so the perps could buy new sneakers. In the midst of the chaos and heartbreak are parallel story lines of gangpower struggles and a terminally ill bookie, who may be in love for the first time. The backdrop for it all is a holiday-season New York ravaged by winter storms but still somehow surprisingly vibrant. This is a dense, moody, and intelligent glimpse at Chinese life in New York as seen through the world-weary eyes of a young man with a foot firmly planted in two cultures.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)