Tears of the Dragon

By Holly Baxter

     Although the Depression has hit them hard, the Browne family tries to keep cheerful and on top of things. When Elodie lands a job in radio she thinks that all her dreams have come true, but a chance invitation from a best friend to wait at a fancy party leads to murder. Suddenly Elodie is plunged into the middle of a bewildering and frightening world of Chinese crime and involvement with a side of Chicago she hoped she would never see.

     Chicago of the gangster era is a familiar setting for stories, and as I opened this book I hoped that it would rise above the usual fare. I needn't have worried - this author packs a lot of book into these pages with a thrilling story that satisfies a desire to find out about this intriguing era, but which leaves room for a whole lot more. The Browne family (mother and four daughters who echo the Marches of Little Women) give the reader a window into life for ordinary Chicago folk. Trying to make ends meet, making clothes, escaping to another world via the radio, yet being more than aware of how Prohibition and the rise in crime affects them. The story itself makes a nod towards Fu Manchu and the type of fiction that was on the radio at the time, with its tortuous tale of Chinese tongs, treasures and the political climate in China at the time of the rise of communism. There are plenty of gangsters in here as well, complete with tommy guns and their own cockeyed sense of justice. Add to this some endearing characters, fascinating insights into the politics and culture of the time, and you have one great powerhouse of a novel. The best historical whodunit I've read yet this year…please tell me there will be a second entry in this new series!