Family Business

November 1, 2021
An open coffin in a flower-filled room, an urn for offerings and another for sticks of incense, chanting monks, and black-suited gangsters. It's a Tong funeral, and New York PIs Lydia Chin and Bill Smith are there with their client, the young Mel Wu. Big Brother Choi, long-time Li Min Jin leader, has died and left the Tong headquarters building to Mel, his niece. A shady real-estate developer is determined to convert the building into a luxury high-rise. The historic-preservation people want it left just as it is. The Tong members, separated into armed rival factions, want to tear it apart to find a rumored treasure within its walls. Choi's chief lieutenant is murdered, a wild motorcyclist is throwing rocks at people, Lydia's obnoxious brother Tim (born in the Year of the Ox) gets involved, and Mama Chin, as always, lends a helping hand. It all ends in a major siege of the building involving hostages, riot police, and secret tunnels. The novel is absolutely brilliant and infused with plenty of Chinese essence, revealing the intricacies of burial customs and the intensity of family ties--not to mention enough pastry and Chinatown Ice Cream Factory cones to give the reader a sugar high. This fourteenth in the series, following The Art of Violence (2020), offers an intricate puzzle, to be read carefully, from the award-winning Rozan.

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