MURDER IN CHINA RED-PB [Paperback]

Liu Chiang-shin, whose name means "a mind as sharp as a sword," was raised in Maoist China, where he saw his father murdered by the Red Guards; 30 years later he's a private detective in New York City investigating the brutal killing of the woman he loved. Dean Barrett's (Kingdom of Make-Believe) Murder in China Red follows the man everyone calls Chinaman as he grapples with cops, bad guys and his own inner demons in a classically toned and sometimes cliched whodunit.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Two professional killings in a posh Manhattan hotel arouse the interest of Chief of Detectives Joe Abrams and Liu Chiang-hsin, a private investigator known as "Chinaman." Abrams, formerly Chinaman's father-in-law, warns him away from the case because one of the victims, a high-priced call girl named Judy, caused the breakup of Chinaman's marriage. However, Chinaman vows to find out who killed his first love, Judy who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He soon runs after assorted hit men, thugs, and two-faced German "businessmen." A highly focused plot, classy prose, and a complicated protagonist merit wide readership.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Action lovers will enjoy a climatic scene in Manhattan's gloomy Red Hook district. -- January Magazine

Asian specialist Barrett...knows his way around .357 magnums, 12-gauge shotguns and all the rest of the light artillery.... -- Kirkus Reviews

Classically toned. -- Publishers Weekly

I quite like Chinaman and hope this is the first of a series. -- Bangkok Post - Bernard Trink

Murder in China Red tells a good story and keeps the reader wanting more....This is a superior book. -- Asian Review of Books

Murder in China Red by Dean Barrett

His name is Liu Chiang-hsin: "a mind as sharp as a sword." But "Chinaman" is the name his friends and contacts use. Chinaman grew up in Beijing during the Mao era and was traumatized by seeing Red Guards beat his scholar-father and drag him off; never to return. Three decades later, the one woman who managed to penetrate his emotional defenses has been found murdered in the New York Palace Hotel. And Chinaman won't rest until he finds the killer.

Chinaman is a 35-year-old private detective living in New York City's East Village. He is unlucky enough to have, as an ex-father-in-law, Manhattan's Chief of Detectives. Worse yet, Chinaman finds himself in the position of trying to enlist his ex-wife's help in solving the murder of the woman she found in bed with him -- just before their marriage ended.

By using his computer, his fists, his wits, his contacts and his knowledge of the streets, Chinaman tracks down the murderers. The denouement takes place in Brooklyn's sinister and bleak Red Hook area at night among the loading cranes, transit sheds, canine-guarded warehouses and chain-linked fences topped with barbed wire. And, if Chinaman can prevent the memories of his Beijing boyhood from overwhelming him, he might just have a Chinaman's chance of coming out alive.

Dean Barrett first arrived in Asia as a Chinese linguist with the Army Security Agency during the Vietnam War. He returned to the United States and received his Masters Degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii. He has lived in Asia for over 20 years. His writing on Asian themes has won several awards including the PATA Grand Prize for Excellence.

Barrett is the author of four novels set in Asia, Memoirs of a Bangkok Warrior; Hangman’s Point – A Novel of Hong Kong; Kingdom of Make-Believe: A Novel of Thailand; and Mistress of the East, an erotic novel set in 1862 China. Several of his plays have been staged in New York City and elsewhere and his musical, Fragrant Harbour, was selected by the National Alliance for Musical Theater to be staged on 42nd Street. Member: Mystery Writers of America; Dramatists Guild.