Denise Hamilton - The Jasmine Trade (2001)
It should have been one of the happiest times of young Marina Lu's life: graduating from high school, planning a wedding, shopping for bridesmaid's dresses. Instead she is lying dead in the front seat of her Lexus, the apparent victim of a carjacking gone wrong. So begins this fascinating mystery about the secluded world of Chinese immigrants living in L.A.'s San Gabriel Valley.
The story's protagonist, Eve Diamond, an Anglo reporter for the Times, investigates Marina's tragic death and gradually uncovers an underworld of crime and corruption, populated by powerful businessmen and ruthless Asian gangs. She also discovers a more vulnerable side of life in the Valley, that represented by the "parachute kids," wealthy Asian teenagers living alone in lonely mansions while their parents manage businesses on the far side of the Rim.
One of those teenagers is the bright, likeable Tony Hsu, a kid trying to do the right thing, be respectful, and obey his parents, but finds himself drifting closer and closer to a world of crime, out of boredom as much as anything. Tony becomes Eve's guide through this complex, inscrutable new world. Eve also encounters -- and, almost unwillingly, falls in love with -- another guide, Mark Furukawa, a man devoted to counseling troubled teens who seems to have some troubles of his own.
Debut novelist Denise Hamilton first wrote about Los Angeles' Chinese community (and the parachute kids) during her other career as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. There she uncovered this inner world of California's Asian Southland, all but unknown to most of the city's millions of inhabitants. She uses her skills as an investigator and writer to excellent effect, producing a work that is both compellingly readable and factually accurate. Hamilton's real-to-life characters keep the reader's eyes fixed on the page as she leads us through a mystery that is both compelling and heart-breaking.
I somehow missed this book when it was published last year, despite the fact that it received rave reviews from such gifted writers as Michael Connelly and Thomas Perry. Don't make the same mistake! Buy The Jasmine Trade and read it today. It was one of the best mysteries of 2001.
Posted by David J. Montgomery in Book Reviews | Permalink
