Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Death Money by Henry Chang

Henry Chang is a native New Yorker, a published poet, and author of five police procedurals set in the Chinatown section of New York City featuring Detective Jack Yu. The fourth one is called Death Money (Soho Crime, 2014). It’s a smoothly flowing and realistic homicide investigation immersed in the side of Chinatown that tourists do not see.

The body of a young Asian man is found in the semi-frozen Harlem River. The autopsy reveals a single lethal stab wound, ruling out the possibility of accident or suicide as cause of death. With no identification and only a couple of annotated receipts and a photo, Yu doesn’t have much to kickstart his investigation. Needing a name above all else, he searches for anyone in Chinatown who might have known the victim. His childhood friend Billy, the owner of a tofu shop, helps Yu gain entrance to a neighborhood association to ask questions. Yu gets another kind of help from Ah Por, an elderly Chinese lady who knew his family years ago. Ah Por is something of a psychic, although Yu calls it yellow witchcraft. She holds the receipts and the photo and gives Yu snippets of information about the dead man, such as he came from the North and was always moving. Just what Yu is supposed to make of that isn’t clear but he keeps her comments in mind as he talks to potential informants.

Yu methodically traces the identity of the victim and then links the victim to his friends and ultimately to his killer through careful and logical legwork. This book is a highly competent procedural with a striking sense of place. How Asian natives keep their traditions while adapting to a new country is intrinsic to the story line. The community associations, formed to help new immigrants and to give a sense of belonging to the neighborhood, are portrayed as key to the lives of Chinatown residents. The snippets about the tiny shops run by hardworking Asians eking out an existence is illuminating and sad. The presence of organized crime is always felt if not always visible.

The competition between police precincts and the incidental racism that Yu encounters add to the depth of the narrative. Recommended as much for the well-done procedural as for the compelling and informative setting.

Starred review from Library Journal.

 

·         Publisher: ‎ Soho Crime; First Edition (April 15, 2014)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Hardcover: ‎ 224 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 9781616953515

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1616953515

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.