Taipei Night Market

August is Ghost Month in Taiwan-a time to commemorate the dead: burn incense, visit shrines, honor ancestors, and avoid unlucky situations, large purchases, and bodies of water. Jing-nan, a young man who runs a food stand in a bustling Taipei night market, doesn't consider himself superstitious, but this August is going to haunt him no matter what he does. He is shocked to the core when he learns his ex-girlfriend from high school has been murdered. She was found scantily clad and shot on the side of a highway where she was selling betel nuts to passing truck drivers. Beyond his harrowing grief for his lost love, Jing-nan is confused by the news. "Betel nut beauties" are usually women in the most desperate of circumstances; the job is almost as taboo as prostitution. But Julia Huang had been the valedictorian of their high school, and the last time Jing-nan spoke to her she was enrolled in NYU's honor program, far away in New York. The facts don't add up. Julia's parents don't think so either, and the police seem to have closed the case without asking any questions. The Huangs beg Jing-nan to do some investigating on his own-reconnect with old classmates, see if he can learn anything about Julia's life that she might have kept from them. Reluctantly, he agrees, for Julia's sake. But nothing can prepare him for what he learns-or how it will change his life.

In Taiwan, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for prioritizing family. When 25-year-old Jing-nan's gangster uncle, Big Eye, asks a favor, Jing-nan can't exactly say no, especially because two goons are going to follow him around to make sure he gets it done right. The favor is this: Big Eye's 16-year-old daughter, Mei-ling, has a biker boyfriend from the wrong side of the tracks-in Big Eye's gangster opinion-and Big Eye wants Jing-nan to bring her to Taipei, away from the bad influences, and straighten her out. It doesn't take Jing-nan long to discover Mei-ling is even more trouble than the average bratty, rebellious teenager. She's been spoiled rotten and doesn't know how to take no for an answer. She has her father's thugs wrapped around her finger and quickly becomes the miniature dictator of Jing-nan's life. But Mei-ling is also hiding a secret-one that puts her in harm's way. If Jing-nan wants to save his cousin from her own demons, he has to figure out the truth, even if it tears his family apart-again.

The third funny, food-forward mystery by Ed Lin set in and around Taipei's bustling night market Jing-nan has known Peggy Lee, a bullying frenemy who runs her family's huge corporation, since high school. Peggy's father has been kidnapped, and the ransom the kidnappers are demanding is not money but IP: a high-tech memory chip that they want to sell in China. Jing-nan feels sorry for Peggy until she starts blackmailing him into helping out. Peggy is worried the kidnappers' deadline will pass before the police are able to track down the chip. But when the reluctant Jing-nan tries to help, he finds himself deeper and deeper in trouble with some very unsavory characters-the most unsavory of whom might very well be the victim himself.

Jing-nan, owner of a popular night market food stall, is framed for a string of high-profile murders - why does it seem like he's always the one left holding the skewer? The fourth entry to Ed Lin's Taipei mystery series is as hilarious and poignant as ever. Taipei is rocked by the back-to-back murders of a petty criminal and a police captain just as the city is preparing to host the big Austronesian Cultural Festival. The celebration is set to bring in indigenous performers from all around the Pacific Rim to the island nation of Taiwan. Jing-nan, the proprietor of Unknown Pleasures, a popular food stand at Taipei's largest night market, is thrown into the intrigue. Is he being set up to take the rap, or will he be the next victim? The fallout could jeopardize Jing-nan's relationship with Nancy, his grad-school girlfriend. Nancy herself has to come to terms with reconciling with her estranged mother, who was living with the murdered criminal, and had an adversarial relationship with the dead cop. Jing-nan also has to be careful not to alienate his trusty workers Dwayne and Frankie the Cat, who are facing their own personal trials. Dwayne, who is of aboriginal descent, tries to navigate a productive path while respecting his heritage, even if he can't seem to make it to the gym. Septuagenarian Frankie helps a fellow veteran in a contemporary world that seems to have forgotten them. Jing-nan, meanwhile, is facing his biggest personal and professional challenges yet, and everything is on the line. Worst of all, he could lose followers on social media.

"A unique blend of tension, charm, tragedy, and optimism, with characters you'll love and a setting so real you'll think you've been there. Highly recommended."-Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series Ed Lin's big-hearted, eye-opening fifth installment in the fan-favorite Taipei Night Market series Jing-nan, the owner of the most popular food stand in Taipei's world-famous Shilin night market, is hauling trash after a successful evening of hawking Taiwanese delicacies to tourists when he finds a corpse propped up against the dumpsters. The dead man turns out to be Juan Ramos, a Philippine national who came to Taiwan for a job at a massive ZHD food processing plant. Jing-nan is haunted by Ramos's story, and by the heartbreak of his family, who arrive in Taipei looking for answers. ZHD has a history of safety violations, and activists have a hunch Ramos's death might be part of a cover-up. Meanwhile, Jing-nan's gangster uncle, Big Eye, has his own mysterious, probably illegal, reasons for being concerned about what's going on in ZHD. He pressures Jing-nan into a daring and risky mission: going undercover as a migrant laborer to get a job at the food processing plant and reporting back about the conditions inside. Jing-nan hopes to find out the truth for the Ramos family, and to save other immigrant lives-but first he has to survive the spy operation. A rollicking crime novel and a scorchingly timely examination of our global dependence on undocumented immigrants and inhumane labor conditions. Story Locale:Taipei Series Overview: Taipei, Taiwan: A young man who runs a dumpling stand in a bustling night market crosses paths with some very dangerous gangsters--including his own uncle.