Detectives Barry Gilbert and Joe Lombardo return after their highly praised debut, COLD COMFORT. This time the two are plunged into Toronto's Chinatown district where they are called to investigate the death of Edgar Lau, a man whose history and connections take the detectives on a ride across continents and cultures, deep into the story of one family's struggle to survive against terrible odds.
In a story that twists and turns towards its devastating conclusion, the detectives must piece together Edgar's scattered history, from his days as a Vietnamese refugee who, as a young boy, made a deadly trek to China by boat, to his affair with a prominent member of Toronto's city government, and his connections to a Chinese drug baron. Throughout their investigation more and more questions are raised, questions to which somebody in the Toronto police department doesn't want them to find the answers. It soon becomes clear to Lombardo and Gilbert that in addition to hunting down Edgar's killer, they must fight the system that allowed it to happen-a battle that could shake the department to its very core. A tale of murder and corruption, family and betrayal in a society hidden and protected from the public eye, this is a riveting police procedural by a masterful young author.