Publisher Description
The murder of a Vietnamese woman reawakens wartime trauma for cop John Thinnes and psychiatrist Jack Caleb in an “absolutely gripping” police procedural (Chicago Tribune).
After a woman is shot in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Chicago, Detective John Thinnes realizes he knew the victim when he was stationed in Vietnam. In fact, he was the best man when his friend Bobby Lee married Hue An. When an anonymous tip comes in that Thinnes might be the real father of her son, Tien Lee, who is the prime suspect in her murder, he is pulled off the case and his partner Don Franchi takes over.
At Hue An Lee’s wake, a schizophrenic man insists there is a connection between her death and an unsolved murder in wartime Saigon. Psychiatrist Jack Caleb is called in to help the schizophrenic mourner, but the therapy is kicking up his own PTSD from serving as a medic during the war. Working with Caleb, Thinnes remembers a deadly criminal from his days as an MP in Saigon—known as White Tiger—who he fears has resurfaced in Chicago. Now it’s up to the two vets to stop him . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dymmoch's compelling fifth John Thinnes mystery (after 2003's The Feline Friendship) skillfully evokes the horrors of the Vietnam War. Called in to investigate a Vietnamese woman's murder, the Chicago detective recognizes the victim as Tien Lee, whose wedding to a friend and fellow soldier he attended in Saigon three decades earlier. Thinnes fears that he and Tien might have had a drunken one-night stand the evening of the wedding and that he may therefore be the father of the prime suspect, Tien's half-Asian son. While Thinnes's female partner, Don Franchi, takes over the case, Thinnes turns for help in recovering his memory to Dr. Jack Caleb. A psychotherapist and one-time medic in Vietnam who specializes in treating vets, Caleb struggles with his own battlefield memories. As his friendship with Caleb grows, Thinnes comes to believe that a murderous criminal known only as White Tiger someone he tried tracking down as an MP years earlier in Saigon is back at work in Chicago. This solid, driving thriller should have wide appeal.