Beijing Payback

Starred review from May 20, 2019
College basketball player Victor Li, the narrator of Nieh’s remarkable debut, has little to concern him beyond his next game, until his restaurateur father, Vincent Li, is killed in a burglary at home in L.A. Sun Jianshui, a 30-ish immigrant who was raised by Vincent before he married and left for America, tells Victor that his father was part of a criminal enterprise formed when Vincent was a young man in China in the years after Mao’s death. According to Sun, Vincent was murdered for refusing to import a dangerous product called Ice. A letter from Vincent to Victor that Victor finds among his father’s papers instructs him to accompany Sun to Beijing and destroy the syndicate. The rich cast includes beautiful young courtesans, Chinese thugs, Russian gangsters, French journalists, and corrupt police in Beijing. Nieh, a Chinese-English translator, has a real gift for language; one character has “a voice that sounds the way strawberries taste.” This impressive blend of crime and coming-of-age marks Nieh as a talent to watch. Agent: Bonnie Nadell, Hill Nadell Literary.

May 1, 2019
After Victor and Jules Li's father, Vincent, is murdered in an apparent home invasion, the siblings discover that everything they knew about their life is an intricately woven myth. Their mild-mannered father, who they thought owned a chain of restaurants, leaves them nothing but a mystery and a briefcase containing cash and a gun. Then Victor is approached by Sun, a young man from Beijing who claims that he is Vincent Li's right-hand man. Sun reveals that Vincent's organized-crime partners, considered his brothers from childhood under Mao's brutal regime, murdered Vincent because he refused to cooperate with their latest smuggling plot. When Sun delivers a letter from Vincent that implores Victor to honor his memory by going to Beijing and shutting down the organization, loyalty trumps reason. Victor, a thoughtful but aimless college student, finds purpose in battling Beijing's underworld. Happily, Nieh leaves the door open for a sequel to this staccato-paced, character-driven thriller, and readers will welcome the opportunity to follow good-guy Victor's path of retribution and self-discovery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2019

DEBUT Victor Li is a 22-year-old California student and a fervid basketball player. His Chinese father, owner of four successful restaurants, has been killed in his office, leaving Victor a letter that turns his life upside down. Vincent Li had been living a lie. He was one of a brotherhood of four in China involved in shady dealings. They had sent him to America to extend their business. When he refused a project called ICE, one supported him, but the other two arranged his death. Victor, accompanied by new friend Sun, his father's prot�g� and bodyguard, goes to China seeking answers and revenge. He finds danger and unexpected allies and learns the truth about his father and the killer. First-time novelist Nieh is a Chinese-English translator and widely traveled, and his Beijing scenes are gritty and scary. Some plot elements may leave readers confused, but the narrative moves briskly and the characters are well developed. VERDICT This late-coming-of-age thriller, in which Victor learns just what he is capable of doing, grabs readers early and doesn't readily let go. [See Prepub Alert, 1/23/19.]--Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2019
After learning that his father's murder was committed not by a burglar, as reported, but by members of a Chinese crime syndicate to which the old man had secret ties, California college senior Victor Li risks his life to find the killers. The kind, upstanding father, Vincent Li, was thought to be the owner of a popular chain of restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley but in fact was only the public face of the Chinese-run operation. Victor has no idea what to make of an attach� case left by his father containing a wad of cash, a fake passport, and a gun. In a letter meant to be read in the event of his death, Vincent explains everything, instructing his son on how to avenge his killing and prevent more deaths. That involves going to Beijing with Vincent's longtime fixer, Sun. In China, the collegian's neophyte nerves are quickly tested by members of the nasty, drug-dealing Snake Hands Gang, a former Russian spy living in exile, and a plot to export stolen human organs to America. It's a perfectly decent story, but for all of the protagonist's f-bombs and a grim account of his paternal grandfather's brutal treatment in Communist labor camps, the book is too lightweight to have any emotional impact. Victor, who narrates, makes much of his life in basketball (he's a bench player on the college team whose much taller black friend Andre brings home the glory), but that adds less dimension than distraction. Nieh's debut novel is likable enough but never as exciting as it tries to be.

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