Incensed

Taiwan’s Autumn Moon Festival—a time for family—provides the backdrop for Lin’s worthy sequel to 2014’s Ghost Month. Jing-nan, owner of Unknown Pleasures, a food stall in Taipei’s Shilin Night Market, has been summoned by his gangster uncle, Big Eye. Big Eye has decided that his 16-year-old daughter, Mei-Ling, needs to be separated from her boyfriend, a petty criminal; Jing-nan, as family, is chosen to be the reluctant babysitter of the insufferable teenager. Ensuring that Jing-nan keeps a close watch on Mei-Ling are two of Big Eye’s thugs, who are willing to impress upon Jing-nan in any way necessary the need to take tender loving care of his young cousin. When Mei-Ling disappears and her boyfriend ends up dead, Jing-nan must take on members of Taipei’s underworld to save his cousin and himself. Readers will be as caught up in Lin’s rich descriptions of Taiwan’s sights, sounds, and mouthwatering foods as they are in his intriguing characters. Agent: Kirby Kim, William Morris. (Oct.)