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A Devil in Hong Kong
On a snowy day in the year 88 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty had an he was not immortal. His jade carver created the most beautiful jade burial suit in history, finishing just three weeks before the Han Emperor died. When the priceless two-thousand-year-old jade burial suit suddenly goes missing in modern Hong Kong, a brutal competition to find it ensues between rival Chinese, Burmese, and Japanese factions. As they battle for the priceless artifact, a psychotic killer with a Maori tattoo on his face surfaces leaving a trail of dismembered corpses strung together like traditional Burmese puppets. Detectives Ian Hamilton and Angela Cheung follow a trail of hacked bodies and terror through contemporary Hong Kong in their search for the killer.
312 pages, Paperback
Published March 9, 2016
2 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
David Harris Lang
6 books23 followersDavid Harris Lang, a current resident of Hong Kong, has lived and worked in Asia much of his life. Besides being a prolific author of Asian-based thrillers, he is an international architect who brings an indelible sense of place’ to his writing as well as a deep understanding of Asian cultures, locales, and customs. His vivid fight scenes come from a life-long practice of the martial arts.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 1, 2016
I was given a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is a page turner. There are plots and sub-plots, psychos, governments, black ops, and cops. There are good guys and bad guys and some maybe bad or maybe not. Lang juggles so many characters and plots that it should have been impossible to keep up with it all, but he does it so well that I was never lost (or not anymore than our good guys are, at least.) I have no idea how many people perished in this book. Some in ancient China, a few in 1920, and many in the present.
Emperor Wu's jade burial suit has been stolen although by whom and when is open to question. The Chinese government wants it, the Myanmar government wants it back, the police in Hong Kong where it was supposedly last stolen need to get it back and figure out who is killing people and making them into bizarre burmese puppets. There are so many strings and Lang ties them together in a story that makes sense. Where do a 17 year-old high school gamer, a psychotic murderer for hire, a drone-driving assassin, a crazy, Chinese, assistant archeologist, a team of Hong Kong police including a woman who has close ties to a major Triad and a Japanese boyfriend who believes he is linked to an ancient swordsman come together? In Hong Kong, of course.
Lang's knowledge of the Orient shows in this book which gives you a feel of Hong Kong, Japan and Myanmar without bogging down in too much descriptive prose. I felt like I was able to feel the places and even the differences in nationalities without losing the heart-pounding momentum.
Hats off to Lang's proofreaders. Spelling and typo errors drive me bonkers. Every book has a couple and that is fine, but a well-written one should have been proofread and this one was. Thank you Mr. Lang.
If you haven't read Lang's previous book called "The Witch of Wanchai" I would get it and read it first because there are a few tie-ins. It makes no difference for this book but it means when I read "The Witch of Wanchai" I do know a few spoilers.
This is a page turner. There are plots and sub-plots, psychos, governments, black ops, and cops. There are good guys and bad guys and some maybe bad or maybe not. Lang juggles so many characters and plots that it should have been impossible to keep up with it all, but he does it so well that I was never lost (or not anymore than our good guys are, at least.) I have no idea how many people perished in this book. Some in ancient China, a few in 1920, and many in the present.
Emperor Wu's jade burial suit has been stolen although by whom and when is open to question. The Chinese government wants it, the Myanmar government wants it back, the police in Hong Kong where it was supposedly last stolen need to get it back and figure out who is killing people and making them into bizarre burmese puppets. There are so many strings and Lang ties them together in a story that makes sense. Where do a 17 year-old high school gamer, a psychotic murderer for hire, a drone-driving assassin, a crazy, Chinese, assistant archeologist, a team of Hong Kong police including a woman who has close ties to a major Triad and a Japanese boyfriend who believes he is linked to an ancient swordsman come together? In Hong Kong, of course.
Lang's knowledge of the Orient shows in this book which gives you a feel of Hong Kong, Japan and Myanmar without bogging down in too much descriptive prose. I felt like I was able to feel the places and even the differences in nationalities without losing the heart-pounding momentum.
Hats off to Lang's proofreaders. Spelling and typo errors drive me bonkers. Every book has a couple and that is fine, but a well-written one should have been proofread and this one was. Thank you Mr. Lang.
If you haven't read Lang's previous book called "The Witch of Wanchai" I would get it and read it first because there are a few tie-ins. It makes no difference for this book but it means when I read "The Witch of Wanchai" I do know a few spoilers.
April 2, 2016
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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This started off with a slightly disturbing and intriguing chapter involving torture, a distinctively tattooed man and an ancient artifact -- a white jade burial suit. Which was enough to get me interested, even if the scene was a told in a heavy-handed manner (and, for the record, I'm not that into torture scenes, but it does work at getting a reader's attention).
Sadly, the start was wasted by then turning to an uninteresting historical tour following the suit from its creation in the year 889 through its discovery by amateur archaeologists and eventual disappearance -- there was decent material there in a pulp-y sense, but Lang just didn't sell it. The suit shows up on the black market in the late 20th century, and that starts the dominoes falling to get us to the first scene.
When we return to the modern time, we meet a loser video game player who is "recruited" to join a private intelligence/criminal enterprise. Nothing about this storyline, the characters involved, or the way that the Chinese government uses them for Black Ops was believable, well-told, or interesting. Nothing.
We then get to the Hong Kong detectives investigating the brutal murder that happened following the initial torture scene. These guys are so clichéd, the interaction between them is so stiff, and the way they do their business is -- well, I just didn't like it.
Do you sense a trend?
There's not one character here that I want to spend any more time with -- strike that. The tattooed man has promise -- give me a book focusing on him -- or the hunt for him in other contexts -- I'd probably indulge in it (I might end up regretting the indulgence, but you never know)
The writing here was mediocre at best. The plotlines, the "twists", the incredible coincidences, etc. were pure melodrama -- and don't get me started on the denouement, I could do 500+ words on it alone, and I'd end up dropping my rating. The dialogue? Painful. Really painful -- like the kind of thing that Joel and the Bots (or Mike and the Bots, or Jonah and the Bots) should be mocking. Still, you give this one decent edit from someone with an ear for dialogue and another edit by someone focusing on cleaning out the plotlines and I can see where this would appeal to fans of Dan Brown and/or James Patterson.
There's a hint of a decent novel buried under a lot of nonsense here, I guess that's the best I can say. Your mileage may vary, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this by a friend of the author in exchange for this post, which was half-baked, I realize, and I feel bad for that. On the other hand, he may not want to see the fully-baked version.
---
This started off with a slightly disturbing and intriguing chapter involving torture, a distinctively tattooed man and an ancient artifact -- a white jade burial suit. Which was enough to get me interested, even if the scene was a told in a heavy-handed manner (and, for the record, I'm not that into torture scenes, but it does work at getting a reader's attention).
Sadly, the start was wasted by then turning to an uninteresting historical tour following the suit from its creation in the year 889 through its discovery by amateur archaeologists and eventual disappearance -- there was decent material there in a pulp-y sense, but Lang just didn't sell it. The suit shows up on the black market in the late 20th century, and that starts the dominoes falling to get us to the first scene.
When we return to the modern time, we meet a loser video game player who is "recruited" to join a private intelligence/criminal enterprise. Nothing about this storyline, the characters involved, or the way that the Chinese government uses them for Black Ops was believable, well-told, or interesting. Nothing.
We then get to the Hong Kong detectives investigating the brutal murder that happened following the initial torture scene. These guys are so clichéd, the interaction between them is so stiff, and the way they do their business is -- well, I just didn't like it.
Do you sense a trend?
There's not one character here that I want to spend any more time with -- strike that. The tattooed man has promise -- give me a book focusing on him -- or the hunt for him in other contexts -- I'd probably indulge in it (I might end up regretting the indulgence, but you never know)
The writing here was mediocre at best. The plotlines, the "twists", the incredible coincidences, etc. were pure melodrama -- and don't get me started on the denouement, I could do 500+ words on it alone, and I'd end up dropping my rating. The dialogue? Painful. Really painful -- like the kind of thing that Joel and the Bots (or Mike and the Bots, or Jonah and the Bots) should be mocking. Still, you give this one decent edit from someone with an ear for dialogue and another edit by someone focusing on cleaning out the plotlines and I can see where this would appeal to fans of Dan Brown and/or James Patterson.
There's a hint of a decent novel buried under a lot of nonsense here, I guess that's the best I can say. Your mileage may vary, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this by a friend of the author in exchange for this post, which was half-baked, I realize, and I feel bad for that. On the other hand, he may not want to see the fully-baked version.
March 27, 2016
I received a copy of A Devil in Hong Kong from Loving the Book in exchange for an honest review.
For over two thousand years the jade burial suit of Emperor Wu has been surrounded by violence and greed. Now it has found its way into modern day Hong Kong where detective Ian Hamilton is trying to unravel the mystery of several sensational murders before the killer adds more to his sinister project.
Words I would use to describe A Devil in Hong Kong are: kick-ass, samurai-movie-like, comic-book-like. I loved that the settings and characters in this book were so vividly described that throughout the day I found my mind wandering back to the scenes and thinking about the characters, wondering what will happen next. Also, David Harris Lang’s wry humor had me laughing out loud many times. His villains are crazy, homicidal, and maybe a little…likeable? His team of heroes are real people who aren’t perfect, and you are going to wish you could be friends with Angela.
I usually have an aversion to violence, as I hate when the value of life is not respected, but, similar to watching Kill Bill, the violence works here in a dramatic larger-than life comic book way.
This book is for anyone who is looking for a fast-paced, exciting novel, likes being transported to new places, and is ok with some gory scenes.
For over two thousand years the jade burial suit of Emperor Wu has been surrounded by violence and greed. Now it has found its way into modern day Hong Kong where detective Ian Hamilton is trying to unravel the mystery of several sensational murders before the killer adds more to his sinister project.
Words I would use to describe A Devil in Hong Kong are: kick-ass, samurai-movie-like, comic-book-like. I loved that the settings and characters in this book were so vividly described that throughout the day I found my mind wandering back to the scenes and thinking about the characters, wondering what will happen next. Also, David Harris Lang’s wry humor had me laughing out loud many times. His villains are crazy, homicidal, and maybe a little…likeable? His team of heroes are real people who aren’t perfect, and you are going to wish you could be friends with Angela.
I usually have an aversion to violence, as I hate when the value of life is not respected, but, similar to watching Kill Bill, the violence works here in a dramatic larger-than life comic book way.
This book is for anyone who is looking for a fast-paced, exciting novel, likes being transported to new places, and is ok with some gory scenes.
April 16, 2016
Wow! This book is one I had a hard time putting down. This is not the type of genre I normally read so I was in for a bit of a shock. There was a load of murder in new and bizarre ways. However I was pleased to find that it was described in a way that kept it from getting too grotesque while still giving you the details.
I loved how the author engulfed you in the history of the area and the artefact that is the main focus of this book. I love history and found these parts to be some of my favourite. I was thrilled to find out that the Author has written a full book that is all historical, I will have to check it out.
I was also very impressed at how in-depth the details are of the culture and area in Hong Kong and the nervy countries. It wasn't at all surprising to find out that the Author lives in Hong Kong. He definitely knows what he is talking about. He did a masterful job putting together fact and fiction to make a story accurate enough that the fiction becomes completely believable.
This book may not appeal to the faint of heart. There is quite a bit of violence, dismemberment, and drug use. These things are explained but not overly graphic. There is also quite a bit of language. I would however recommend this book to anyone who enjoys intense modern crime drama.
I received a copy from Loving The Book in exchange for my honest review
I loved how the author engulfed you in the history of the area and the artefact that is the main focus of this book. I love history and found these parts to be some of my favourite. I was thrilled to find out that the Author has written a full book that is all historical, I will have to check it out.
I was also very impressed at how in-depth the details are of the culture and area in Hong Kong and the nervy countries. It wasn't at all surprising to find out that the Author lives in Hong Kong. He definitely knows what he is talking about. He did a masterful job putting together fact and fiction to make a story accurate enough that the fiction becomes completely believable.
This book may not appeal to the faint of heart. There is quite a bit of violence, dismemberment, and drug use. These things are explained but not overly graphic. There is also quite a bit of language. I would however recommend this book to anyone who enjoys intense modern crime drama.
I received a copy from Loving The Book in exchange for my honest review
April 23, 2016
This book has a little bit of everything... there is intrigue, action, history, and even a little romance. Emperor Wu has had an epiphany: he is mortal. Upon finally realizing this, the Emperor commissions a burial suit made out of jade. The suit takes a year to fashion and not long after it is completed, the Emperor dies. And that is only the beginning. Through flashbacks, the reader sees the twists and turns on the journey that Emperor Wu's burial suit takes until we find oer selves in modern day Hong Kong where various opposing forces seek the suit for their own purposes.
What I loved about this book is the rich descriptions of people and places. I loved the descriptions of the burial suit and the steps that the Emperor's children were willing to take to ensure he shuffled off his mortal coil.
The action is almost non-stop, and I had a hard time putting the book down.
There is more violence than sex, but where it is gruesome, it is very gruesome. I also believe that it would take a special young adult to be truly interested in the complexities of the plot. That being said, I would recommend caution in readers under 16.
Reviewed by HR Duby for Romance Authors that Rock
What I loved about this book is the rich descriptions of people and places. I loved the descriptions of the burial suit and the steps that the Emperor's children were willing to take to ensure he shuffled off his mortal coil.
The action is almost non-stop, and I had a hard time putting the book down.
There is more violence than sex, but where it is gruesome, it is very gruesome. I also believe that it would take a special young adult to be truly interested in the complexities of the plot. That being said, I would recommend caution in readers under 16.
Reviewed by HR Duby for Romance Authors that Rock
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews