Fortune: The Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung

It’s 1995 in Hamilton’s tense third crime novel featuring Uncle Chow Tung (after 2020’s Foresight), and in two years Britain will be handing over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. Rival triad gangs, nervous about China’s intentions, get into a turf war that spreads to Macao, and 61-year-old Uncle, a member of the Fanling triad in the New Territories, is enlisted to help put an end to the violence. A meeting of the various gangs to settle matters includes the participation of Tao Siju, the PRC’s minister of public security. The stakes rise as Uncle asks for concessions to do business in China in exchange for rounding up men Tao wants extradited to China. Hamilton balances the action with an affecting portrait of Uncle, who likes to gamble, drink San Miguel beer, and eat snow pea shoots fried in garlic. As in previous books, Uncle, who swam to Hong Kong to escape China in 1959, speaks to and visits the grave of his fiancée, Gui-San, who died during their swim. Readers will root for Uncle as he walks the tightrope to maintain the Hong Kong triads. (Jan.)