Review of Incensed by Ed Lin (2016, Soho Crime)

After his previous exploits investigating the death of his former girlfriend, Jing-nan is a minor, local celebrity. He’s not let it go to his head though and he still runs a food stall in the Shilin night market. As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, his gangster uncle asks him to babysit his sixteen year old niece. Mei-ling wants to drop out of school to pursue her dream of becoming a popstar. She also has a biker boyfriend of Indonesian extract who’s active in a gang. Jing-nan brings her north to Taipei, but Mei-ling has a habit of finding trouble and it’s not long until she disappears. In a panic, Jing-nan rushes to find her before she comes to harm and his uncle’s goons take matters into their own hands.

Much like the first book, there’s not much of a plot or mystery to Incensed. Instead, the novel acts more like a fictional travelogue for readers unfamiliar with Taiwan (I have a feeling the endless explanation will distract Taiwanese readers). Using colourful characters and light humour, Lin spends most of the tale detailing aspects of Taiwanese culture and society, especially focusing on food (present on almost every page) and the role and place of criminal gangs. As per the first book, there is also an on-going obsession with the music of Joy Division. The supposed hook for the tale is the babysitting and disappearance of Mei-ling, the daughter of a gangster. Jing-nan was charged with looking after the bratty sixteen year old. Which he does for most of the story. Indeed, it is only in the last fifth of the tale that the mystery element takes place, and that lacks any real puzzle with a weak denouement. If you’re after a real mystery, or plot-driven story, then this may disappoint. If you're happy enough with colourful characters, a few amusing scenes, and a fictional travel guide for Taiwan, then its passable.

Review of Taroko Gorge by Jacob Ritari (2009, Unbridled Books)

Peter Niels is an American journalist who used to cover war-torn parts of the world, but has shifted to general interest pieces and has travelled to Taiwan to research a story on religion. He’s accompanied by Pickett, a photographer. The pair travel to the Taroko Gorge, a national park and one of the island’s better known tourist destinations, and one of its Buddhist temples. Resting along a path, three Japanese school girls wander by. It is the last time they are seen and when they fail to return to their coach and class mates the alarm is raised. By the time the police arrive it is dark and the search will have to wait to the following day. Niels and Pickett, along with the Japanese teacher and four class mates remain at the site, staying in the visitor centre. Already tense due to the disappearance of the girls, they start to bicker and simmer, and the approach of a typhoon adds to the strain.

Taroko Gorge focuses on the unfolding drama of three Japanese school girls going missing in a Taiwanese national park. The last two people to see them are a disillusioned American journalist and his drunken photographer. Their class mates did not see them slip away or have no idea as to where they were headed. As night falls, a local police inspector who is wary of the involvement of Americans and Japanese visitors arrives. Unable to search in the dark, the Americans, the teacher and four school children remain on site, staying in the visitor centre.  Ritari explores the disappearance and the subsequent wait and search through four of the characters – Peter Niels, the journalist; Tohru Maruyama, the class rep; and Michiko Kamakiri, a jealous classmate of the missing girls; and Hsien Chao, the detective – using four first person voices. The resulting perspectives enable the reader to piece together what happened and why, which no-one character has a full-handle on. Ritari does a nice job of elaborating the characters and the relationships between them, with the emotional games of the school children replicated amongst the adults, who can’t help but think the worst of each other. The mystery of the disappearance is also nicely revealed. The overall effect is a story that is more like a play, exploring human nature with the characters limited to the stage of the gorge and visitor centre.

Review of Ghost Month by Ed Lin (Soho Crime, 2014)

August is ghost month in Taiwan, a time to remember the dead and act cautiously given ghostly presences. Jing-nan, however, is not superstitious and nor can he afford to be given he has the task of investigating the death of his former girlfriend. Jing-nan owns a food stall in the Shilin night market in Taipei, working long hours to try and pay off his inherited debt of his grandfather. He dreamt of another life though: graduating from UCLA and then marrying his childhood sweetheart, Julia Huang. The death of his parents though meant dropping out and returning home, which also meant he did not reunite with Julia, who had enrolled in NYU. He is shocked to read in a newspaper about Julia’s murder and that she had been working at a roadside stall. She was a star pupil who seems to have fallen further than himself. The police seem little interested in the case and at the behest of Julia’s parents Jing-nan starts to investigate the circumstances of her death. He is soon warned to mind his own business, but with Dwayne and Frankie, his two stall workers, and new girlfriend, Nancy, he continues to try and find out what happened and why.

Ghost Month is set in Taipei and follows the exploits of a night market food stall owner to discover the truth about the death of his ex-girlfriend. Lin spends a fair amount of the novel introducing the reader to Taiwan – its people, history, culture, food and politics – and does a fair job of setting the scene. The story, however, is fairly weak in a number of respects: the characters are somewhat two-dimensional, the dialogue is wooden, and the plot is weak and barely holds together, especially given that Jing-nan is prone to always making poor decisions. The result is a tale that reads better as a travelogue than a murder mystery; which is a problem given that the book is sold as the latter. Having read the book, the praise on the cover and inside the jacket is the real mystery.