September 1, 2014
At the start of Robinson’s entertaining sequel to 2013’s White Ginger, Bai Jiang, a souxun (finder of lost people), agrees to help the SFPD’s Inspector Kelly locate Daniel Chen, a possibly illegal Chinese immigrant who was involved in a recent shoot-out in a trendy San Francisco neighborhood that left three persons dead. In her quest for Chen, Bai must contend with a drunken cop straight out of central casting; a vicious Latino gang; a marriage offer from the rich but insufferable Howard (via his dominating mother); and her inability to resist Jason, a gang boss and father of her 13-year-old daughter. The dialogue is a little too flip, the devil-may-care attitude toward wealth too much the stuff of fantasy, and the conclusion anticlimactic, but there’s something wonderfully appealing about Bai—a combination of a knife-throwing ninja warrior, a fairy godmother, and Wonder Woman. Agent: Kimberley Cameron, Kimberley Cameron & Associates.
October 15, 2014
Taking people at their word puts a souxun, a people finder, at risk. Bai Jiang is a beautiful, wealthy Chinese woman with a penchant for lost causes. When Inspector Kelly of the San Francisco City Police Department approaches her and her partner, Lee, for help in finding Daniel Chen, who Kelly claims was involved in a huge drug bust gone wrong, she reluctantly acquiesces. Since she has relatives high in the triad, Bai thinks it will be easy to find the trail of the missing China White heroin and $1 million in cash. But Jason, the father of her 13-year-old daughter, Dan, and a triad enforcer, informs her that the heroin was Mexican brown and the people involved were members of the Nortenos gang. When Bai, learning that Chen is a college professor, pays a visit to his office, she turns up two dead Nortenos. At Chen's house, Bai and Lee find Wen Liu, a buyer and seller of confidential information. They follow her to a hotel, where she too is murdered. Jason's mother, Elizabeth, who acts as Bai's mother figure, is so eager to marry Bai off that she sets her up with Howard Kwan, whom Bai instantly dislikes. Though the Kwans are fabulously wealthy, none of their three sons are equal to the task of running the empire. Instead, Howard's mother thinks the tough-minded Bai, a woman who never gives up, would be a perfect fit. Jason, who still loves and protects Bai, thinks otherwise. Bai's second appearance (White Ginger, 2013) provides nonstop action and characters you care about despite their dubious lifestyles.
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Starred review from October 1, 2014
Bai Jiang, a souxun or people finder, works out of a renovated building in San Francisco's Chinatown. Her latest case, sparked by SFPD Inspector Kelly, involves Daniel Chen, who apparently was present at a drug bust gone bad. What was a Berkeley professor doing at a drug bust? And why does his life on the Internet only go back three years? What is Chen hiding? Bai persists in investigating despite being warned off the case by Mexican drug thugs and objections from her prospective husband, as well as her former lover, the father of her 13-year-old daughter. When Bai's partner is shot and left for dead, she is caught between her Buddhist beliefs and her desire to destroy the culprit. VERDICT Fast-moving and enticing, this is a wonderful sophomore effort from Robinson (after the acclaimed White Ginger). Bai is a strong, memorable protagonist with an intriguing backstory and lots of potential to grow. Highly recommended for fans of S.J. Rozan's "Lydia Chin" series or Sara Paretsky's "V.I. Warshawski" mysteries.
Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
October 1, 2014
San Francisco people finder Bai Jiang returns (White Ginger, 2013). SFPD Inspector Kelly asks Jiang and her business partner, Lee, to find Daniel Chen, the man he claims was behind a failed drug bust that left several dead, including a policeman. As they dig deeper into the case, it becomes clear that Chen is not whom he seems and that Kelly has ulterior motives for wanting him found. Born into one of San Francisco's most notorious crime families, Jiang now uses her immense wealth and wicked blade skills to help those in need. She's still taking care of Jai, a teenager she rescued from sex trafficking, and now she's taken in Alicia, a young Latina who was being abused by her gangster boyfriend. The girls get along well with Jiang's daughter, Danwhose father, Jason, now runs the Sun Yee On triad. Jiang and Jason's relationship continues to smolderalthough a proposal from a squirrelly Chinese billionaire could put an end to their on-again, off-again affair. Jiang is developing into a complex series character and one whom readers will be impatient to meet again.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)