Thrillers
BAD TRAFFIC
By Simon Lewis
(Sort Of Books, Stg£7.99)
An unusual and highly-effective thriller set in rural England in which the protagonist, Inspector Jian, a Chinese cop from a remote part of China, comes to Leeds to find his missing student daughter. Wei Wei had phoned him on her mobile in distress, begging his help and then simply disappeared. His main problem is that he doesn't have a word of English.
With difficulty, he discovers that Wei Wei had dropped out of her course, left her flat and had worked in a Chinese restaurant frequented by snakeheads -- ruthless Chinese gangsters involved in people-trafficking. Then fate intervenes in the shape of 19-year-old Ding Ming, an illegal immigrant with a little English. He's been separated from his wife by the gang masters, and has run away from his cockle-picking job to find her.
The unlikely pair join forces and are soon pitted against a variety of brutal British and Chinese criminals, and, as the violence escalates, find themselves hunted by the English police as well.
Lewis sets a blistering pace from page one and exploits his 'fish out of water' theme to the fullest.
Memorable.
CITY OF THE SUN
By David Levien
(Bantam Press, Stg£10)
Paul and Carol Gabriel, a comfortably-off couple living in a comfortable suburb of Indianapolis, suffer the ultimate nightmare that all American parents dread. Their 12-year-old son vanishes without trace when out on his paper route.
Fourteen months on, the police have made no progress on the case and have devoted just 22 hours to it. A sympathetic cop directs them to Frank Behr, a tough and reclusive ex-policeman who has his own cross to bear.
Initially, he refuses to help the Gabriels, telling them they must face up to the fact their son is almost certainly dead. He eventually relents, and, against his most basic instincts, allows Paul to accompany him as they follow a tenuous trail through the seedy and dangerous underworld that exists beneath the placid exterior of Indianapolis, and on to a violent conclusion in Mexico.
This is an edgy, exciting and tension-wracked debut thriller from screenwriter (Oceans 13 and The Runaway Jury) David Levien. His Frank Behr character is a complex and sympathetic creation. More, please.
- Myles McWeeney
