This is a Bust - Softcover

Lin, Ed

3.69

245 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1885030452 ISBN 13: 9781885030450

Publisher: Kaya Press, 2007

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

This Is a Bust, the second novel by award-winning author Ed Lin, turns the conventions of hard-boiled pulp stories on their head by exploring the unexotic and very real complexities of New York City's Chinatown, circa 1976, through the eyes of a Chinese-American cop. A Vietnam vet and an alcoholic, Robert Chow's troubles are compounded by the fact that he's basically community-relations window-dressing for the NYPD: he's the only Chinese American on the Chinatown beat, and the only police officer who can speak Cantonese, but he's never assigned anything more challenging than appearances at store openings or community events. Chow is willing to stuff down his feelings and hang tight for a promotion to the detective track, despite the community unrest that begins to roil around him. But when his superiors remain indifferent to an old Chinese woman's death, he is forced to take matters into his own hands. This Is a Bust is at once a murder mystery, a noir homage and a devastating, uniquely nuanced portrait of a neighborhood in flux, stuck between old rivalries and youthful idealism.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Ed Lin, a native New Yorker of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards and is an all-around standup kinda guy. His books include Waylaid and This Is a Bust, both published by Kaya Press in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Snakes Can't Run and One Red Bastard, which both continue the story of Robert Chow set in This Is a Bust, were published by Minotaur Books. His latest book, Ghost Month, a Taipei-based mystery, was published by Soho Crime in July 2014. Lin lives in Brooklyn with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung, and son. www.edlinforpresident.com

Synopsis:

Set in Manhattan's Chinatown in the mid 1970s, follows officer Robert Chow, a young NYPD beat cop, as he struggles to bring a murder to the attention of his superiors and survive amid the anti-Asian bias of fellow white officers and the corrupt rulers ofthe local Chinese-American community.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.