The Dead Can't Make a Living

by Ed Lin

“A unique blend of tension, charm, tragedy, and optimism, with characters you’ll love and a setting so real you’ll think you’ve been there. Highly recommended.”—Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series

Ed Lin's big-hearted, eye-opening fifth installment in the fan-favorite Taipei Night Market series

Jing-nan, the owner of the most popular food stand in Taipei’s world-famous Shilin night market, is hauling trash after a successful evening of hawking Taiwanese delicacies to tourists when he finds a corpse propped up against the dumpsters. The dead man turns out to be Juan Ramos, a Philippine national who came to Taiwan for a job at a massive ZHD food processing plant.

Jing-nan is haunted by Ramos’s story, and by the heartbreak of his family, who arrive in Taipei looking for answers. ZHD has a history of safety violations, and activists have a hunch Ramos’s death might be part of a cover-up. Meanwhile, Jing-nan’s gangster uncle, Big Eye, has his own mysterious, probably illegal, reasons for being concerned about what’s going on in ZHD. He pressures Jing-nan into a daring and risky going undercover as a migrant laborer to get a job at the food processing plant and reporting back about the conditions inside. Jing-nan hopes to find out the truth for the Ramos family, and to save other immigrant lives—but first he has to survive the spy operation.

A rollicking crime novel and a scorchingly timely examination of our global dependence on undocumented immigrants and inhumane labor conditions.

336 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication April 7, 2026

About the author

Ed Lin is a journalist by training and an all-around stand-up kinda guy. He's the author of several books: Waylaid, his literary debut, and his Robert Chow crime series, set in 1970s Manhattan Chinatown: This Is a Bust, Snakes Can't Run, and One Red Bastard. Lin, who is of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. Lin lives in New York with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung.

Reviews

[Mai H.]

ANHPI TBR

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Soho Crime

[Aracely Figueroa · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first time ever reading Ed Lin. Although this is the fifth book in the series, I read this as a stand alone and was able to understand who Jing-nan was and the crazy things he has gone through. Loved the cover for the book, I just had to read it! Loved the mix of humor and thrilling aspect.

[Haddy • haddyreadshere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley & Soho Press for the ARC.

This was such an interesting read. This is actually my first time reading a book centered on Taiwanese people and migrant workers, so it was a huge eye-opener for me.

There were so many things in this book that made me pause and think, and honestly, it made me want to do more research — especially about how migrant workers are treated in Taiwan and whether these issues are still ongoing, since this book is about to be published. And it was just really sad to see that, despite the fact that we’re all human beings, some people are treated as less simply because they’re less privileged.

One thing that really stood out to me was this idea that migrants are blamed for crime. Like, are we saying that every citizen of a country is inherently good, and it’s only migrants and immigrants that bring “badness” into a society? That just doesn’t make sense to me. I think it’s much easier for people to point fingers than to look inward and confront the reality that bad people exist everywhere — regardless of nationality, race, or background.

Another thing the book highlighted was the hypocrisy: migrants are accused of “ruining” the country, yet they’re actively contributing to the economy and its growth. They’re doing the hardest, dirtiest jobs, getting paid less, lacking access to proper healthcare and housing — and even from the little they earn, they’re still being exploited. It was heartbreaking to see the kinds of choices people are forced to make just to survive, especially when they have families back home depending on them.

I also found the narrator’s journey really interesting. At the beginning, he couldn’t empathize with the Filipino workers at all. In his mind, he was Taiwanese — he didn’t have to struggle the way they did. Even if he worked in a factory, he’d get the better-paying job. Their reality and his reality didn’t intersect. But everything changed when he was forced to walk in their shoes. That’s when it truly hit him just how much they were enduring — not just workplace brutality and injustice, but racism outside the factory as well.

Reading this made me think about how universal this experience is. You can easily relate it to what’s happening globally — how immigrants are treated as “less than” simply for seeking better opportunities, despite being hardworking and essential. They carry so much of the labor, yet bear the brunt of abuse.

This is my first time reading anything by this author, and I genuinely appreciated the experience. The story was beautifully written, authentic, thoughtful, and even had moments of subtle humor that balanced the heaviness. Everything came together really well, and I truly enjoyed it.

[Bao Bao · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fifth book from the Taipei Night Market series.

Jing-nan works at a night food stall in a busy Taiwanese market. One night, he stumbles across a dead body. A foreign Filipino worker, Juan Ramos. How and why did he die there is the question that the family wants to know...

Surprisingly, Jing-nan is convinced to enter the Factory that Juan Ramos worked in. He tries to look for his brother, who went also went in to find out what happened. At the Factory, Jing-nan meets Benny, and then eventually finds out the truth.

A fun detective-like/cozy mystery novel blended into one.
I thankfully listened to the first four books, which gave me an insight of who the main characters are. But, in all honesty, this can be read as a standalone book.

I did enjoy this book, but at times I did feel it was going getting sidetracked into the food business, which was the same in the first four books. Giving it a 5 star for some of the quirks, and the realisation that Taiwan is not a perfect country in regards to their migrant workers and poor salaries, which is basically the same in every single country on this planet.

Thanks to Netgalley and Soho Press | Soho Crime for a copy of this ARC!