In the aftermath of the war in Vietnam, thousands of desperate refugees fled the killing fields for new lives in Southern California. But for those who settled in "Little Saigon," the war never really ended. The latest victim of the continuing struggle is Li Frye, a popular singer whose songs of hope and home have made her a heroine to her people. Ripped from the stage by masked gunmen, she has vanished into the dark alleys of Little Saigon, where outsiders are met with suspicion and a stony silence as impenetrable as the steaming jungles of Vietnam.
Local surfing legend turned reporter Chuck Frye knows what it means to be an outsider. He's the black sheep of his wealthy family, but Li is his sister-in-law, and he cannot sit back and let them or the clueless police investigate the case alone. What Chuck cannot know is that he stands at the edge of a swirling vortex of corruption and violence that reaches to the highest levels of the United States intelligence community. As he comes closer to the truth, he draws nearer to a terrible secret that many would kill to keep.
No, this title isn't about the War in Vietnam. The plot takes place mostly in the present in California. Former champion surfer Chuck Frye must find his Vietnamese sister-in-law, who has been kidnapped. His search leads him through a Vietnamese ghetto in Orange County and to the realization that there is much more to the kidnapping than he first believed. Parker misses several opportunities to give dimension to his story. It's difficult to care much about his cast of characters. David Colacci does his best with the thin plotting and sparse characters, but even his basically first-rate performance seems to suffer a bit. He's not as enthusiastic as usual. Still, his voice changes, accents, and rhythms are top-notch. A.L.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
About the Author
T. Jefferson Parker is the bestselling author of fourteen previous novels, including Storm Runners and The Fallen. Alongside Dick Francis and James Lee Burke, Parker is one of only three writers to be awarded the Edgar Award for Best Novel more than once. Parker lives with his family in Southern California.
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