The follow-up to Trouble in Paradise
finds the center of Granger's working-class world moving from London's East End to the bohemian Soho of 1956. Lizzie Robbins, estranged from her husband, abruptly assumes care for a Chinese girl with cloudy parentage called Peace. When the conscientious Peace vanishes, Lizzie and her neighbors fear she has been kidnapped, and to solve the crime must delve into London's Chinese community and the stranglehold of its gangsters and triads. In contrast to Paradise
, this novel deals with a single major crime and, with an adult narrator driving the plot, explores issues of sex and marriage. Granger's strong narrative voice and the tug of community, of characters readers can care about instantaneously, give this book its force and charm. As always, Granger writes about outsiders—cross-dressers, clairvoyants, petty cons—with utter warmth and not a trace of condescension. There's no parade of bodies, none of the perverse genius of Ruth Rendell or the public school sorts populating Elizabeth George, just characters and unforgettable community. (Jan.)
