12/11/2023
The dark underbelly of tariff policy and international trade sends down-and-out Seattle investigator Lars Severin across the globe in this mystery thriller from Alexander (Blood in the Bluegrass). When two US Department of Commerce agents disappear after inspecting a shady export company in rural China, and the official inquiry proves “unusually thin,” a wealthy relative recruits Severin to find the truth. Accompanied by his old college buddy Wallace Zhang, who’s handily fluent in Mandarin, Severin retraces the steps of the missing agents through China, a trail littered with greed, corporate crime, espionage, and possibly murder.
While the investigation unfolds at a steady pace, Severin and Zhang spend their downtime drinking and exploring Severin’s troubled psyche as Alexander digs deep into his lead’s troubled state. Mired in depression, blacklisted by powerful enemies, and haunted by ghosts from his days as a homicide detective, Severin considers himself a “defrocked alcoholic burnout.” But once he takes the case the dust shakes of his wings: picking locks and pressing witnesses are second nature, even though hardboiled Severin insists on pretending he’s only in it for the money. Zhang’s companionship is also more important than Severin wants to admit, and it’s not until a violent attack leaves Zhang barely alive that Severin’s defenses finally begin to crumble, as he realizes Zhang is his last link “to how things used to be.”
The focus on Severin’s redemption is at times on-the-nose, but readers who love seeing down-and-out investigators bounce back will relish his transformation. Some incidental characters appear and vanish too quickly to register with much power, but the plotting is deep and layered, and fascinating settings are rendered in immersive detail, from a posh enclave in the San Juan Islands to colonial relics in old Shanghai. Alexander is a former federal agent whose knowledge of tariff policy and Washington bureaucracy lends authority to the finer details of “antidumping” investigations, an obscure topic readers will come away feeling expert in.
Takeaway: Slow burn mystery set amid a fascinating corner of international corporate crime.
Comparable Titles: Nelson DeMille, Brian Haig’s Man in the Middle.
Production grades Cover: A- Design and typography: A Illustrations: N/A Editing: A- Marketing copy: A-
