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.
