Chan Ho-Kei 陳浩基 was born and raised in Hong Kong. He has worked as software engineer, scriptwriter, game designer and editor of comic magazines. His writing career started in 2008 at the age of thirty-three, with the short story ‘The Case of Jack and the Beanstalk,’ which was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of Taiwan Award. He went on to win the award again the following year with ‘The Locked Room of Bluebeard.’
In 2011, Chan’s first novel, THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD, won the biggest mystery prize in the Chinese-speaking world, the Soji Shimada Mystery Award, and has subsequently been published in Taiwan (Crown), China (New Star), Japan (Bungeishunju), Thailand (Nanmee) and Italy (Metropoli d’Asia).
From the prelude: “由二〇一九年中至今,我經常在想,身為香港出版社負責人及小說作家,到底有什麼事情可以做,去多出一分力,去守護我們的家。小說作家未必有體能和膽識走上前線支援,也沒有政治家的識見去提供意見和行動建議,但我們還是有可以做的事情。不少文化工作者在這一年來,以自己的專業去發聲和紀錄社會當下的狀況,不容歷史遭到篡改…… 無論之後發生什麼事情,我們好好活著,一同見證屬於我們的未來。”
We’re all witnesses to history and messengers to humanity. We all bear witness to how a world class city is destroyed, within months in 2019, by invading power mongers and corrupt, spineless politicians. No amount of distortion, denial, or negation can white-wash or exonerate these state crimes.
Let justice be done though the heavens fall! 香港人加油!!
Would be more enjoyable if the stories aren’t based heavily on the 2019 social movement of Hong Kong. It’s just nothing something I want when I want to immerse myself into reading some detective stories.