Earl Norman

The Earl Norman books are becoming extremely rare, and publishers don’t seem to be interested in reprinting the series. The only way some of us may ever have all the stories is for collectors to scan and type the stories into PDF to swap with other collectors. I have already completed PDFs of HANG ME IN HONG KONG and KILL ME IN ROPPONGI. I am working on KILL ME IN YOKOSUKA. If other collectors would do the same for some of the other books, we could eventually have PDFs of all ten books. Why not help? I can be contacted at fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Saturday, September 30, 2017

The Wild Beasts of Wuhan

Ava Lee #3: “The Wild Beasts of Wuhan” by Ian Hamilton. In Book #3 of this fascinating series, Ava Lee, a young Canadian-Chinese forensic accountant works at recovering money stolen. In this case, a wealthy Chinese gentleman from Wuhan, China has been swindled out of 73 million dollars in fake art masterpieces called Fauvist art, which is wild colors also known as wild beasts. She’s not sure the money can be found, due to the matter of time that has passed since the purchase, and the man who brokered the deal has died and his records destroyed, but she promises to look into it for a few days, and if leads look promising she’ll have Uncle offer a contract from Hong Kong. Her trail takes her to Denmark, Iceland, London, and New York. Once she discovers the evidence to proceed, she starts working to bring the money back to their clients, only to have the clients decide on vengeance instead.

This was another fascinating story featuring the martial arts expert of bac mai, and the method of her trail to the final source of her investigation. The characters come alive, and Ava Lee is a force to be reckoned with. Highly recommended.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Disciple of Las Vegas

Ava Lee #2: The Disciple of Las Vegas by Ian Hamilton. Ava Lee lives in Canada, and is a forensic accountant and detective. She has teemed with an older Chinese man in Hong Kong, she calls Uncle. Uncle has the contacts, and Ava has the investigative ability to run crooks down. They hire out to clients who have lost great sums of money, and Ava knows how to get the money back for them, and their percentage is taken from the amount she recovers. A martial artist, she is often called upon her ability to defend herself against some violent people.
In this second story, and I might say there is some confusion to the numbering system of the series, Tommy Ordonez, of the Philippines Chinese organization, has lost sixty million dollars due to his brother’s gambling problems. Ava discovers that an online gambling group cheated the brother. Connections lead her to Las Vegas and London. As she follows the leads, she is also alert to a death-contract placed on her by man from a previous case.

The case moves slowly, and everything seems to fall into her grasp with little effort, though the story is interesting and keeps the reader turning the pages. Ava is not timid in the use of torture to gets what she wants. She will ask nicely, but if they refuse to cooperate, she will result to torture, and it isn’t pretty.  Overall, I found the story and characters highly interested. Although the main character is gay, there are no sexual scenes in the story. Highly recommended, just be aware of some torture scenes.