If I didn't see Carl Hiaasen's name on the cover of A Death in China, which Hiaasen co-wrote with Bill Montalbano, I'm not sure I would have believed he had a role in writing it. First of all, as the title suggests, this story doesn't take place in south Florida! A Hiaasen book that is not set in Florida? What universe are we living in? Second, it's not funny. At all. If you've read Hiaasen's solo fiction, you know he's one of the funniest crime novelists ever.
But that fact that Hiaasen had a little something to do with writing A Death in China is revealed by the delightfully twisted plot. Tom Stratton is an American art history professor on tour in China. He runs into his academic mentor, who has come to visit his long-lost brother, a Communist Party official. When the mentor is reported dead, Stratton investigates, and soon finds himself on the bad side of the Communist brother's smuggling plot, running for his life.
Hiaasen and Montalbano keep it interesting and keep the reader guessing. Stratton deals with memories of his brief, violent incursion into China while he was in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. His desire to atone for his actions during that time, as well as his desire to avenge the death of his friend and mentor, drive him to take some risks and get to the bottom of the antiquities theft. It may not be a Hiaasen-esque story, but A Death in China is a decent mystery.
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