Fate: The Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung

Fans of Canadian author Hamilton will welcome this series launch featuring Uncle Chow Tung, a beloved supporting character in the author’s popular Ava Lee series (The Imam of Tawi-Tawi, etc.). A harrowing prologue set in 1959 chronicles how 25-year-old Chow and nine others try to escape the depredations of Chairman Mao’s Great Leap Forward by swimming from mainland China across four kilometers of polluted sea to Hong Kong. Not everyone makes it. Flash forward to 1969, when Chow Tung becomes a full-fledged member of the Fanling triad, a Hong Kong crime syndicate. Soon afterward, Gao Lok, the triad’s leader, dies in an auto accident. Chow, whom Gao highly trusted, recommends that Ma, Gao’s obvious successor, not be appointed and that an election be held. On the day of Gao’s funeral, Ma and his deputy are shot dead in the funeral home courtyard. The tension rises as the various major players jockey for power. Hamilton does a masterly job capturing the sights, smells, and sounds of Hong Kong as he charts Chow’s struggle to survive. (Feb.)