The Chinese Chop
Published on 26. September 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
200 pages
978-1-63194-314-0 (ISBN)
Description
With World War II only barely in the rear view mirror, New York apartments are scarcer than hen's teeth.
Janice Cameron has moved to the City to be a writer, trading Honolulu's sun and flowers for Manhattan in the grip of icy winter. She's imagined her own cunning little flat, a little table by the window, a little lace cloth...fat chance! Her own flat is completely out of the question, and in fact she's going to have to share a boarding-house bedroom with a perfect stranger.
At least the stranger is perfect: Lily Wu is beautiful, exquisitely dressed, and swathed in mystery. But Janice hasn't even unpacked before a rather less exquisite mystery intrudes. True, the handyman wasn't brilliant at maintaining the boiler, but murder seems a rather extreme response.
In the best Golden Age tradition, the rooming house is crammed with intriguing suspects, from the tortured musician to the French emigree to the actress with a face for radio. Lily and Janice would much prefer to leave, but they've nowhere to go. Solving the murder seems the best possible option, especially since if someone were arrested and taken away...well, that would free up a room, now wouldn't it?
Janice Cameron has moved to the City to be a writer, trading Honolulu's sun and flowers for Manhattan in the grip of icy winter. She's imagined her own cunning little flat, a little table by the window, a little lace cloth...fat chance! Her own flat is completely out of the question, and in fact she's going to have to share a boarding-house bedroom with a perfect stranger.
At least the stranger is perfect: Lily Wu is beautiful, exquisitely dressed, and swathed in mystery. But Janice hasn't even unpacked before a rather less exquisite mystery intrudes. True, the handyman wasn't brilliant at maintaining the boiler, but murder seems a rather extreme response.
In the best Golden Age tradition, the rooming house is crammed with intriguing suspects, from the tortured musician to the French emigree to the actress with a face for radio. Lily and Janice would much prefer to leave, but they've nowhere to go. Solving the murder seems the best possible option, especially since if someone were arrested and taken away...well, that would free up a room, now wouldn't it?
Reviews / Votes
"Lily Wu is a fascinating detective. She does not just solve crimes, but also helps other characters-and readers-discover their own prejudices and assumptions. She feels in many ways familiar yet she broke the mold for the fictional representation of ethnic minorities." -100 Greatest Literary Detectives "Sheridan portrayed people of various ethnic groups in an amazingly unstereotypical and believable fashion, and managed to take a few subtle jabs at prejudice against Asians and Italians in this highly readable mystery of past crimes and family honor." -1001 Midnights: The Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective FictionMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-63194-314-0 (9781631943140)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Juanita Sheridan (nee Light), born in Oklahoma in 1906, spent her childhood in boarding schools and traversing the American West unsupervised. By her early 20s, broke and with a baby, she landed in Los Angeles and hustled hard writing (and selling!) screenplays. When little Ross was adopted by his grandmother, Sheridan lit out for Hawai'i to write in earnest. Escaping an unsuccessful marriage, she left Hawai'i in 1941. After stays in New York and California, she eventually remarried and landed in Mexico, working as a translator and knocking back a regular cocktail of booze and pills. In 1974 her son received a postcard informing him of her death. Incurably restless and likely a terrible mother, Juanita Sheridan made a vital contribution to the mystery genre: her protagonist Lily Wu was the first Asian woman to anchor a series. At a time when Asian characters were often clumsy caricatures, Sheridan depicted Lily and her multiethnic supporting players as nuanced, fully realized human beings.