Publisher's Weekly Review
The thrilling fiction debut from Yale law professor Chua (World on Fire) anchors a mind-bending murder mystery in the social turbulence of 1944 Berkeley, Calif. A report of gunfire brings police detective Al Sullivan to room 604 of the luxurious Claremont hotel. Inside, he finds William Wilkinson, a rich industrialist with political aspirations, unharmed. Everything--save the bullet hole in the wall--seems perfectly normal. When a hotel employee tells Wilkinson, "We thought you'd been murdered," he enigmatically replies, "I have been." A few hours later, Wilkinson is, indeed, found dead, and Sullivan launches an official investigation. Early evidence points to the three beautiful granddaughters of wealthy socialite Genevieve Hopkins Bainbridge, whose youngest sister, Iris, happened to be murdered in the same hotel room a decade earlier. The story alternates between Genevieve's deposition and detective Sullivan's first-person narration, with sly, Rashomon-style changes in interpretation accompanying each shift in perspective. Chua seeds the novel with fascinating nuggets of California history and real-life figures, including Margaret Chung, the first Chinese woman to become a physician in the United States. The result is a richly satisfying historical mystery that draws on its setting for more than mere atmosphere. (Sept.)
Kirkus Review
An old-fashioned detective novel set in 1940s San Francisco, with an injection of contemporary concerns. In her fiction debut, Chua, best known for Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011) and several books about immigration and politics, pays tribute to the mystery novels she loved growing up, incorporating extensive research on topics ranging from the architecture of San Francisco to the Chinese Exclusion Act to the biographies of Wendell Willkie and Madame Chiang Kai-shek. When presidential hopeful Walter Wilkinson is found shot dead with his pants down in his room at the Claremont Hotel, the prime suspects are three young women: Isabella Stafford and her cousins, Nicole and Cassie Bainbridge. Unfortunately, the Mexican housekeeper who saw one of them coming out of Wilkinson's room can't tell one blond white girl from another. On the case is hard-boiled homicide detective Al Sullivan, originally Alejo Gutiérrez, a member of the Berkeley police force who is half Mexican, half Nebraskan, and part Jewish on his Mexican side, who's been passing as white for many years. Among the many complications he faces in his investigation is the fact that Isabella's 7-year-old sister, Iris, died at the Claremont 10 years earlier under circumstances that remain unclear. The novel opens with the deposition of the girls' grandmother, Genevieve Bainbridge, who controls the fortune to which they are heir. She's been told that if she doesn't give up the killer, all three will take the rap--and while she won't do that, she has plenty to reveal, and her testimony is parceled out in sections throughout the book. The many threads of the plot as well as the author's concerns about race, class, and other matters come together in the cleverly imagined character and voice of her detective. Satisfyingly twisty, highly educational, and lots of fun. Go Tiger Mom! Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
When presidential hopeful Walter Wilkinson is murdered in Berkeley's iconic Claremont hotel, Detective Al Sullivan is drawn into a tangle of volatile politics, deceptive femme fatales, and destructive family secrets. In wartime California, Japanese citizens are forced into internment camps, communist activists foment unrest, and class and racial divisions create widespread suffering. At the crime scene, witnesses report seeing two people near Wilkinson's room, an Asian woman and one of the three socialite Bainbridge cousins. Al is convinced he's found the mysterious Asian woman when a former assistant to Madame Chiang Kai-shek is brutally murdered, and Madame Chiang is cagey about her and her own well-known friendship with Wilkinson. The Bainbridge cousins, Nicole, Cassie, and Isabella, are hiding startlingly dangerous information and a legacy of damage from Isabella's sister's mysterious childhood death. Their secrets lead back to the Claremont and Wilkinson, but who has the true motive for the murder? This is a riveting mystery featuring a gifted detective and accidental charmer whose inner conflict about his family's blended heritage offers a timeless perspective on prejudice. In her first novel, Chua skillfully creates tension around Sullivan's complex investigation, tempting red herrings, and thoughtful examination of war-time social divisions.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers will be intrigued by the very thought of the internationally best-selling author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (2011) writing crime fiction.
Library Journal Review
DEBUT In 1930, seven-year-old Iris Stafford died in the Claremont Hotel, which she is now said to haunt. In 1931, Al Sullivan's Mexican father was "repatriated" to Mexico after the stock market crash, allegedly to free up jobs for Americans. By 1944, Iris's sister Izzy and her two Bainbridge cousins have grown into beauties, and Al has taken his mother's last name and risen to be a homicide detective with the Berkeley Police Department. They all come together at the Claremont when a presidential candidate is killed, and witnesses identify a woman who resembles one of the three Bainbridge cousins. The D.A. warns Mrs. Genevieve Bainbridge that he can charge all three of her granddaughters as co-conspirators if she doesn't identify the killer. But Al has his doubts. Everyone has suggestions for his case, including Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, who purportedly was involved with the murder victim. Al is warned of Communists, Japanese spies, and the Chinese, but, as the son of a Mexican father and an Okie mother, he has himself experienced prejudice and is determined to find the truth. VERDICT The historical mystery debut by Yale Law School professor Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) is a successful, compelling mash-up of California history, ghost story, family tale, and social commentary.--Lesa Holstine
