A CHINESE REMEDY

In Ruckus’ mystery novel, mergers and acquisitions consultants investigate two unusual cases in London involving a stalker and an apparent suicide.

Chance Yang, a Chinese consultant based in Tokyo, flies to London for a couple of jobs. His boss, Felipe Kazama, tells Chance to look into a client’s half-sister’s recent suicide. He traces her whereabouts and activities in an attempt to discover what led to her death. But that’s not the only reason Chance is in England—Alexander Roxborough, an “acquaintance” of Felipe’s, has asked for help, as his goddaughter, Catherine, has a stalker who has tried to break into her house. Chance, who’s certainly not a bodyguard, undergoes Krav Maga martial arts training, just in case he needs it while keeping an eye on Catherine. Simply being in London, where Chance lived six years earlier, sparks memories of an old flame who tragically died of a drug overdose. In the course of his investigations, Chance finds himself drawn to Catherine in an unexpected way. The author enriches the novel’s cast with absorbing backstories. Chance is a likably reserved consultant/amateur detective and an ideal contrast to Felipe, who’s delightfully bizarre (evidently, one of their company’s greatest perks is a Netflix subscription) with a sense of humor to match (“Do you know what happens if a vegetarian cat meets a mouse? It says to the mouse; you are lucky that I don’t eat meat; you are unlucky that my cousin does”). Felipe does have an irritating tendency to prattle on in dialogue that sometimes feels like a stream-of-consciousness exercise. As the narrative lingers on long speeches and Chance’s potential romance and self-defense course, the ongoing mysteries stagnate. Still, Chance and Felipe make an engaging duo that readers will surely welcome in sequels.

Whimsical sleuths lead an enthralling novel that unfortunately sidelines its intriguing mysteries.