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Summary
Summary
"Propulsive. . . . Highly enjoyable. . . . It sets up a sequel, one that I very much look forward to reading." --The New York Times Book Review
A fresh, smart, and fast-paced revenge thriller about a college basketball player who discovers shocking truths about his family in the wake of his father's murder
Victor Li is devastated by his father's murder, and shocked by a confessional letter he finds among his father's things. In it, his father admits that he was never just a restaurateur--in fact he was part of a vast international crime syndicate that formed during China's leanest communist years.
Victor travels to Beijing, where he navigates his father's secret criminal life, confronting decades-old grudges, violent spats, and a shocking new enterprise that the organization wants to undertake. Standing up against it is likely what got his father killed, but Victor remains undeterred. He enlists his growing network of allies and friends to finish what his father started, no matter the costs.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
College basketball player Victor Li, the narrator of Nieh's remarkable debut, has little to concern him beyond his next game, until his restaurateur father, Vincent Li, is killed in a burglary at home in L.A. Sun Jianshui, a 30-ish immigrant who was raised by Vincent before he married and left for America, tells Victor that his father was part of a criminal enterprise formed when Vincent was a young man in China in the years after Mao's death. According to Sun, Vincent was murdered for refusing to import a dangerous product called Ice. A letter from Vincent to Victor that Victor finds among his father's papers instructs him to accompany Sun to Beijing and destroy the syndicate. The rich cast includes beautiful young courtesans, Chinese thugs, Russian gangsters, French journalists, and corrupt police in Beijing. Nieh, a Chinese-English translator, has a real gift for language; one character has "a voice that sounds the way strawberries taste." This impressive blend of crime and coming-of-age marks Nieh as a talent to watch. Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
After learning that his father's murder was committed not by a burglar, as reported, but by members of a Chinese crime syndicate to which the old man had secret ties, California college senior Victor Li risks his life to find the killers.The kind, upstanding father, Vincent Li, was thought to be the owner of a popular chain of restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley but in fact was only the public face of the Chinese-run operation. Victor has no idea what to make of an attach case left by his father containing a wad of cash, a fake passport, and a gun. In a letter meant to be read in the event of his death, Vincent explains everything, instructing his son on how to avenge his killing and prevent more deaths. That involves going to Beijing with Vincent's longtime fixer, Sun. In China, the collegian's neophyte nerves are quickly tested by members of the nasty, drug-dealing Snake Hands Gang, a former Russian spy living in exile, and a plot to export stolen human organs to America. It's a perfectly decent story, but for all of the protagonist's f-bombs and a grim account of his paternal grandfather's brutal treatment in Communist labor camps, the book is too lightweight to have any emotional impact. Victor, who narrates, makes much of his life in basketball (he's a bench player on the college team whose much taller black friend Andre brings home the glory), but that adds less dimension than distraction.Nieh's debut novel is likable enough but never as exciting as it tries to be. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After Victor and Jules Li's father, Vincent, is murdered in an apparent home invasion, the siblings discover that everything they knew about their life is an intricately woven myth. Their mild-mannered father, who they thought owned a chain of restaurants, leaves them nothing but a mystery and a briefcase containing cash and a gun. Then Victor is approached by Sun, a young man from Beijing who claims that he is Vincent Li's right-hand man. Sun reveals that Vincent's organized-crime partners, considered his brothers from childhood under Mao's brutal regime, murdered Vincent because he refused to cooperate with their latest smuggling plot. When Sun delivers a letter from Vincent that implores Victor to honor his memory by going to Beijing and shutting down the organization, loyalty trumps reason. Victor, a thoughtful but aimless college student, finds purpose in battling Beijing's underworld. Happily, Nieh leaves the door open for a sequel to this staccato-paced, character-driven thriller, and readers will welcome the opportunity to follow good-guy Victor's path of retribution and self-discovery.--Christine Tran Copyright 2019 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
"Beijing payback" is a propulsive first novel that aims to entertain. Victor Li, a college student whose father, Vincent, was recently killed in a home invasion, learns from the detective on the case that the murder might've been the work of an "experienced killer." Suspects abound. The most likely seems to be Rou Qiangjun, a man who has recently arrived in California to replace Vincent in running all four branches of Happy Year, a Chinese restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley. Vincent came of age during the Cultural Revolution and entered into a blood brotherhood on the streets of Beijing. Now, the brotherhood is responsible for an expansive smuggling endeavor and the Happy Year restaurants serve as a cover for their United States operations. In a letter left for Victor, Vincent reveals that he argued with the brotherhood about Ice, the latest product they were planning to bring in from China. "If you are reading this letter, the worst has come to pass," Vincent writes. "Do not mourn me as a victim." Instead, he wants Victor to avenge him by returning to Beijing to find evidence of Ice and hand it over to a Western journalist there. Exposing the operation in the international press will embarrass the government, he says, and force them to step in and shut down the brotherhood's shady dealings for good. So Victor heads off to Beijing, aided by his father's former protege, Sun Jianshui, who it turns out is a lethal fixer. Despite the highly capable backup, things don't go as Victor planned. Daniel Nieh packs his novel with action, taking many of his cues from movie plots: We open with a flash-forward; we follow Vincent and Sun as they navigate increasingly harrowing situations that we know are leading to a final boss lurking somewhere. But even if the book's plot moves aren't difficult to anticipate, the details that fill them in are highly enjoyable. Nieh clearly wants you to enjoy yourself, which makes it very easy to forgive the occasional lines of wooden dialogue and an overreliance on formula. There are some interesting ideas about identity and privilege here. The money earned from the brotherhood's illicit activities in Beijing is the reason Vincent was able to build an idyllic life for Victor and his sister in California. Victor grapples with the moral implications of this with the convincing clumsiness of a sheltered 20-something. Plus, Nieh is a Chinese-English translator and his experience in this arena is an important feature of the text. Victor is mourning his father, and is often reminded of Vincent's advice - snippets of it appear throughout the novel in Chinese and serve to remind Victor of all that he has inherited culturally and emotionally, both for good and bad. And Victor Li - or Li Xiaozhou, as he is known in China - is perceived as an entirely different person in sleepy San Dimas than he is in Beijing's underworld. In the lulls between high-octane fight scenes, Nieh uses the gaps in Victor's fluency to lend realism to the experience of straddling these two worlds. The second half of "Beijing Payback" rushes through a few final action scenes, then slows down for a clever plot twist and a brooding ending. And it sets up a sequel, one that I very much look forward to reading. LAUREN Wilkinson is the author of "American Spy"
Library Journal Review
DEBUT Victor Li is a 22-year-old California student and a fervid basketball player. His Chinese father, owner of four successful restaurants, has been killed in his office, leaving Victor a letter that turns his life upside down. Vincent Li had been living a lie. He was one of a brotherhood of four in China involved in shady dealings. They had sent him to America to extend their business. When he refused a project called ICE, one supported him, but the other two arranged his death. Victor, accompanied by new friend Sun, his father's protégé and bodyguard, goes to China seeking answers and revenge. He finds danger and unexpected allies and learns the truth about his father and the killer. First-time novelist Nieh is a Chinese-English translator and widely traveled, and his Beijing scenes are gritty and scary. Some plot elements may leave readers confused, but the narrative moves briskly and the characters are well developed. VERDICT This late-coming-of-age thriller, in which Victor learns just what he is capable of doing, grabs readers early and doesn't readily let go. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/19.]--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
