Review of The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kei
This is a book that took some getting into. First, there were the names. Chinese, well the setting is Hong Kong, but unfamiliarity does make them harder to grasp. And there’s a big cast: the cops (main characters), and lots of civilians, including witnesses and suspects. A bundle of names. I recall with War and Peace, having my bookmark in the cast list at the beginning, but here you are on your own.
If I am putting you off, don’t let me as this book is a great read. A book I didn’t want to end, as I would lose the people, lose Hong Kong, lose the smart criminal bosses and the unravelling of who and how.
Ah! the puzzles. Things are not what you expect. The author plays a great game with us. I admit the explanations go on a bit as they confound, confuse, and turn everything upside down. But once I got through the first tale, that was the test for me, though the ending woke me up, I got to enjoy the book more and more. Superintendent Kwan and Inspector Lok are the main characters. Kwan is the Sherlock Holmes of the Hong Kong police force, but Lok is no bumbling Watson, but rising up to take his mentor’s place. Or that’s where we start, because each tale takes us back in time, the first in 2013, the last in 1967.
At the beginning, Hong Kong is a British colony, with Brits in all the senior positions including the police force. 1997 was handover to the China with a free Hong Kong. More recently, we have seen battles on the streets to keep Hong Kong free, with the cops very much an instrument of the Chinese government. But we don’t go there, as The Borrowed was published in Chinese in 2014. I’d like to credit the translator, Jeremy Tiang, one of the too often forgotten wordsmiths, for a racy read.
It’s an odd conceit going back in time, story by story, and I wasn’t sure how it would work, as it takes away some surprise. But it adds new ones with the tales themselves. We travel through Hong Kong in time and space, in the bustling markets, on the crowded roads, on the ferries, in the restaurants and shops. It’s a vivid picture of a Chinese city. Along the way, there’s corrupt elements in the police, keeping their triad paymasters informed on police activity, while their minions take any rap. A system Kwan and Lok are out to beat. There’s shoot-outs and chases. The whodunit aspect confounded me each time, and I write crime and so think I’m pretty sussed when it comes to whodunits, but these had me gasping in surprise and admiration.
If I am putting you off, don’t let me as this book is a great read. A book I didn’t want to end, as I would lose the people, lose Hong Kong, lose the smart criminal bosses and the unravelling of who and how.
Ah! the puzzles. Things are not what you expect. The author plays a great game with us. I admit the explanations go on a bit as they confound, confuse, and turn everything upside down. But once I got through the first tale, that was the test for me, though the ending woke me up, I got to enjoy the book more and more. Superintendent Kwan and Inspector Lok are the main characters. Kwan is the Sherlock Holmes of the Hong Kong police force, but Lok is no bumbling Watson, but rising up to take his mentor’s place. Or that’s where we start, because each tale takes us back in time, the first in 2013, the last in 1967.
At the beginning, Hong Kong is a British colony, with Brits in all the senior positions including the police force. 1997 was handover to the China with a free Hong Kong. More recently, we have seen battles on the streets to keep Hong Kong free, with the cops very much an instrument of the Chinese government. But we don’t go there, as The Borrowed was published in Chinese in 2014. I’d like to credit the translator, Jeremy Tiang, one of the too often forgotten wordsmiths, for a racy read.
It’s an odd conceit going back in time, story by story, and I wasn’t sure how it would work, as it takes away some surprise. But it adds new ones with the tales themselves. We travel through Hong Kong in time and space, in the bustling markets, on the crowded roads, on the ferries, in the restaurants and shops. It’s a vivid picture of a Chinese city. Along the way, there’s corrupt elements in the police, keeping their triad paymasters informed on police activity, while their minions take any rap. A system Kwan and Lok are out to beat. There’s shoot-outs and chases. The whodunit aspect confounded me each time, and I write crime and so think I’m pretty sussed when it comes to whodunits, but these had me gasping in surprise and admiration.
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