A Death in China

Carl Hiaasen · Bill Montalbano

Dec 2010 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

An American investigates a murder amid the secrecy and corruption of China in this crime thriller from the New York Times–bestselling author of Razor Girl.
 
Art history professor Tom Stratton hasn’t seen his former mentor David Wang for years—until they unexpectedly run into each other while Stratton is on a guided tour of China. But the reunion doesn’t last long. After Wang is found dead—and the American embassy fumbles the investigation—Stratton sets out to solve the mystery of the killing on his own.
 
Before long, he’s tangled in a web of corruption that reaches the highest seats of power. Beset by the suffocating secrecy and subterfuge of communist China, Stratton must find his friend’s murderer—before the fury of a brutal conspiracy closes in on him.
 
Along with Powder Burn and Trap Line, this international mystery is one of the early suspense thrillers written by Carl Hiaasen and Bill Montalbano, a writing team praised for their “fine flair for characters and settings” (Library Journal).
 

Ratings and reviews

Darker than most of Hiaasen's work, this fine thriller takes readers on a tour of early-1980's China, into a world filled with Communist thugs, spies, idealistic youths, and a sinister criminal mastermind, all seen through the eyes of an American college professor with a past filled with restless ghosts. Highly recommended.

Not your typical fare from this author but a good journey of intrigue into a China of yesteryear that few Americans have experienced.

Like seeing China thru author's eyes

About the author

Carl Hiaasen (b. 1953) is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of more than twenty adult and young adult novels and nonfiction titles, including the novels Strip Tease (1993) and Skinny Dip (2004), as well as the mystery-thrillers Powder Burn (1981), Trap Line (1982), and A Death in China (1984), which were cowritten with fellow Miami Herald journalist Bill Montalbano (1941–1998). Hiaasen is best known for his satirical writing and dark humor, much of which is directed at various social and political issues in his home state of Florida. He is an award-winning columnist for the Miami Herald, and lives in Vero Beach.
 
Bill Montalbano (1940–1998) was a foreign correspondent and prize-winning reporter. Born in New York City, he graduated from Rutgers University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1969. As a Latin American correspondent for the Miami Herald, Montalbano received an Overseas Press Club award in 1973, the Maria Moors Cabot Prize in 1974, and the Ernie Pyle Award in 1975, among other accolades in later years. He joined the Los Angeles Times in 1983, and traveled around the world before settling in London in 1995. Montalbano is survived by his second wife and five children.