MURDER IN CHINATOWN

Racism, immigration policy and lust all add up to murder as a new century dawns.

Because immigration law does not allow Chinese women into the United States, many Chinese men marry poor Irish girls who are happy to have hardworking husbands. The Chinese are in danger of attack anytime they venture away from Chinatown. So the disappearance of Angel Lee, the mixed-race niece of a mother whose baby midwife Sarah Brandt has just delivered, terrifies her family. Sarah calls on her friend Detective Sergeant Malloy for help even though he disapproves of the sleuthing that places her in harm’s way (Murder On Lenox Hill, 2005, etc.). Angel was being pressured to marry John Wong, a wealthy but much older Chinese friend of her father. Sarah’s snooping reveals she has eloped instead with Quinn O’Neal, a poor Irish boy she had been secretly meeting. When she’s found strangled in the backyard of the family’s tenement, there is no dearth of suspects. The O’Neals despised the bride, and the Lee family was dishonored by her lack of obedience. To add to the confusion, Malloy, who’s learned that Quinn’s sister has taken up residence with John Wong, receives a number of false confessions from the Lee family. Despite his warnings to leave the case alone, Sarah keeps digging and putting herself in danger before the killer is revealed.

A suspenseful tale of casual racism and corrupt police.