Year of the Dog
A Detective Jack Yu Investigation
Book Two of the Chinatown Trilogy
by Henry Chang
Promoted from the fifth precinct (the Chinatown Precinct) to the ninth precinct, Detective Jack Yu is accustomed
to dealing with multicultural scenarios. While the Thanksgiving Day Parade is going on Jack contemplates his
mixed thoughts about the holiday seasons in New York City. There really are two cities here—one rich, one
poor, each spiritually, if not physically, segregated from one another.
The death of an entire Chinese family, presumably a murder-suicide, brings this case close to home for Jack
Yu. A delivery boy goes missing in Chinatown and turns up dead. Then a gang shooting occurs on the streets of
Chinatown with numerous fatalities. Needless to say Detective Jack Yu has his hands full with all the crime
going down in Chinatown. Even after he has been reassigned to the ninth precinct, the 0-five (the Chinatown
Precinct) continues to pull Jack back in. Jack Yu, American born, grew up in Chinatown and knows it well.
A bookie struggles with lung cancer and facing the end of his life—yet his last act on this earth is
one from a huge and giving heart. Then it is the New Year—the Year of the Pig, the last in the lunar
cycle.
Year of the Dog is a wonderfully written work of fiction. It is not a mystery in the sense of
whodunit but more of a story of the underground and their lives (the bookie, the gangbangers, the thugs, the
thieves) in Chinatown. Year of the Dog is a fast-paced, engrossing novel to read. |
The Reviewer |
Connie Harris |
Reviewed 2009 |
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