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Underkill [Hardcover]

Leonard Chang
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 7 2003 Allen Choice, 2
Edgy and as engrossing as Leonard Chang’s acclaimed debut crime novel Over the Shoulder, Underkill finds Korean American investigator Allen Choice on a case that becomes as much a personal journey as an exploration of murder and its harrowing consequences.

Two years have passed since Allen examined his late partner's death in San Francisco, which eventually exposed secrets about the death of Allen's immigrant father twenty years earlier, with the help of journalist and girlfriend Linda Maldonado. Now Allen follows Linda down to Los Angeles—and into the unfamiliar world of illegal raves and small-time drug dealers—to uncover the details of her brother's unexpected and suspicious death, hoping to repair their deteriorating relationship and aiding her as she once helped him.

Underkill is a dark and riveting look at the mysteries of families and relationships, and delves deeply into Allen’s complicated interior life. With Allen Choice in this new series, Chang is skillfully creating an unforgettable and unique character in the world of noir.

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From Publishers Weekly

The elements that made Chang's first mystery, Over the Shoulder (2001), so notable-the unusual take on Silicon Valley and San Francisco and its lead character's tortuous investigation into his own tangled roots-are, alas, absent in the author's second book about Korean-American executive protection expert Allen Choice. Fraught with doubts about his deteriorating romance with Linda Maldonaldo, the tough Hispanic reporter who lent a hand in Over the Shoulder, Choice is also facing serious workplace stress-the executive protection market is drying up, and he's doing seedy private detective work that he considers beneath him. When Linda's younger brother is killed in a drug-related car crash in Malibu, Allen takes a load of emotional baggage with him as he flies down to L.A. to help. Chang is a gifted writer, but he often makes his hero as lugubrious and full of self-doubts as a Woody Allen character, without the redeeming laughs. It doesn't help that the death of Linda's brother explodes into a complicated but not terribly interesting family saga involving an abusive father and an Internet child pornography venture. But one character-a Korean-American woman named Serena who is about to move up to the San Francisco area-offers hope that Choice's next adventure might return him to more friendly terrain.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The only bad thing about the latest entry in the Allen Choice series is its lame title. Past that, it's a treat, with a protagonist who really grows on you. It's impossible not to root for Choice, a Korean American security specialist now dipping his toes into PI work, as he leaves San Francisco to help his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend find her younger brother's killer. Raised by a bitter aunt after his parents died, Choice is adrift when it comes to figuring out family and love relationships. His secretive girlfriend, Linda, doesn't make things easier when she refuses to discuss their future while sucking him into an increasingly dangerous investigation. Even after he's almost killed trying to help Linda, her family--led by a manipulative mother and a raving bitch of a stepsister--alternately rages at him and gives him the cold shoulder. Choice is a good guy who deserves better--and he just might get it, in the form of a beautiful, young computer geek named Serena who helps him navigate the dark corners of L.A.'s rave scene. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Another Knock-Out of a Mystery Feb 25 2004
Format:Hardcover
This is a series that continues to improve and reward the reader. Leonard Chang is writing some of the best current detective fiction now available in these books. And it doesn't hurt that he's also able to address issues of race and alienation at the same time. _Underkill_ brings back reluctant investigator Allan Choice to look into the apparently accidental death of his girlfriend's younger brother. The investigation takes Choice into the underground rave scene and competition between ecstasy dealers, which may have had something to do with the death. At the same time, Allan's relationship with his girlfriend, Linda, seems to be unravelling and try as he might, he can't figure out how to prevent it. This is an excellent, fast-paced mystery that left me wanting more--Bring on Book #3!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Standout Well Written Mystery July 5 2003
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I'm a literature grad student, and I've had the opportunity to follow Chang's writing for some time now. His first two novels were clearly attempts to delineate the racial dynamics in America (Asian/African American as well as class issues), and with this Allen Choice series he seems to be trying to write about Korean Americans in a similar but almost subterranean way. He is writing about an Americanized Korean American man as a Private Investigator, a man who looks into the grit of American lives (Korean American lives in Over the Shoulder, and now the L.A. Underground and ecstasy scene in Underkill) all the while investigating his own life, both external and internal life. Allen Choice has no ethnic or racial ties--he's afloat and alone. He actually has NO ties (familial or relationship), which on some level echoes Chang's previous novels. The archetype of the PI is the isolated man, and here Allen Choice is isolated on so many levels it's dizzying, because family, race, profession, and now relationships have served to separate him from conventional society. Chang has taken the model of the PI and used this to exploit his other themes of alienation. This takes not only mystery fiction but Asian American fiction to new levels. I highly recommend this series for readers looking for exciting, well-written stories with a bit more substance than the usual genre entertainments.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Solid choice of the mystery May 10 2003
By Harriet Klausner TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover
Korean-American executive protection expert Allen Choice has doubts about his failing romance with Hispanic reporter Linda Maldonaldo while concerned with his weak business. The adrenaline that fueled the beginning of his relationship with Linda (see OVER THE SHOULDER) is gone along with the thrill. The lack of executive protection clients in the Bay area has forced Allen to accept sleazy sleuthing that he knows is way below his skill level, but allows him to eat.

Adding to his depression is his feelings of guilt for not being there when Linda's brother died in a drug-related car crash. To ease his remorse Allen travels to Malibu to be there for his girlfriend. Already feeling like a fish out of water, instead of finding a family mourning a tragedy, Allen walks into a nasty Internet child pornography venture that could leave him as the next accident victim.

Readers who took delight in Allen's first tale will enjoy this story, but will quickly realize that it is not quite on a level with its predecessor. Perhaps it is the change of location, but Allen seems out of place in Malibu because he fits so well in San Francisco. Still readers will appreciate his self-deprecating doubts about himself and Linda, and enjoy his latest investigation just not the first choice.

Harriet Klausner

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