Red Jade

What started as a promising series has devolved into something just run-of-the-mill, as shown by Chang's third procedural featuring NYPD detective Jack Yu (after 2008's Year of the Dog). A murder-suicide in Chinatown of a Chinese-American couple leads Yu's former commander to call him in as a public relations gesture to an influential citizens' group. The case proves to be open and shut, and the book primarily deals with the detective's efforts to tie up loose ends from the murder of Uncle Four, a gang leader, by tracing the whereabouts of Four's mistress, Mona. When the trail points to Seattle, where, coincidentally, Yu's love-interest, lawyer Alexandra Lee-Chow, is set to receive an award, he travels there on his own dime. The plot contrivances don't end there. Unlike, say, Ed Lin (Snakes Can't Run), Chang fails to make Chinatown engaging or his lead someone readers will want to spend more time with. (Nov.)