Andrew Lanh

Child of My Winter is the fourth book in the Rick Van Lam series and yes, that “V” is capitalized. His heritage is Vietnamese, not Dutch. Rick is a former NYPD cop who has moved to Connecticut where he works as a private investigator doing mostly insurance cases and a part-time instructor at Farmington College teaching Criminal Procedure. He was born in Vietnam, his father an unknown American soldier, his mother a Vietnamese woman who left him at a Catholic orphanage where he was despised for his biracial heritage. Even after coming to America, serving as a police officer and now as a college professor, he is still suspect within much of the Vietnamese refugee community.

He notices a student, Anh Ky (Dustin) Trang whose isolation from others draws his attention and concern. When he witnesses an angry confrontation between him and a favored professor, he is even more worried. When that professor is murdered and Dustin is the prime suspect, he begins to investigate, urged on my his friend Hank, a local cop who is also Vietnamese, his ex-wife, his landlady and a coterie of friends whose advice and wisdom seem as much part of his investigative process than actual investigation.

I liked the character of Rick Van Lam and his friends. I liked their camaraderie, their sociability as they sat around and discussed Dustin’s problems. I like the insight into a Vietnamese and the remaining traumas of the Vietnam War. I think the people in this story are fairly well-developed with the exception of the “bad guys” who are pretty toxically one-dimensional, from Dustin’s entire family including his hero uncle to the prosperity gospel grifter with megachurch aspirations, the bigoted college professor who inflicts childhood grudges on his student, and the arrogant BMOC.

I will confess it is a strange sort of detective story, though, since they did so very little detecting, very little investigating. They did a lot of eating, even more gossiping and meeting up with friends to talk it over amongst themselves. Rick and Hank did manage to go around and meet all the parties, but in terms of solving the crime, their greatest asset was the patience to wait for it to solve itself. While the mystery is central to the story, they seem to be ancillary to its solution. This didn’t make it a boring story.They are good conversationalists.

There’s a thing that happens in series where all the likable characters from previous books have to show up for a chat. I haven’t even read the other books, yet I felt that sense that we were having conversations for the benefit of readers who want to check in on former favorites. Still, I want to read more books by Andrew Lanh with Rick Van Lam, starting with the first where everybody is new.

I was discomfited to discover that Andrew Lanh, the author, is Ed Ifkovic, author of another popular series. His bio indicates he has spent many years working and teaching literature from around the world and he should be comfortable writing the series under his own name. Writing with a Vietnamese surname, though, feels wrong to me. It’s suggesting he is writing from inside rather than outside the culture. That brings us into the area of appropriation, but we don’t need to go there for reasons to avoid doing that. It’s misleading the readers as well, suggesting he is writing from his own experience rather than from experiences people shared with him or he read about.

Child of My Winter will be released July 4th. I received and advance e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

★★★
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/05/19/9781464208461/… (more)

When I first chose this book to read, I didn't realize that it is the second in a series, but it doesn't matter – it worked quite nicely as a standalone. However, I am going to read the first one, Caught Dead, to get more background.

A woman commits suicide. Or is it murder? Rick Van Lam is a PI, but he is also a “dust boy,” a mongrel, a maligned mixture of Vietnamese and Caucasian blood not much accepted by either race.

This is not a gory mystery at all. It skips the violence of so many mysteries. The woman whose mystery Rick is hired to solve is not especially likable; even her niece who wants her death investigated is ambivalent about her.

I liked that the characters were not all good, not all evil. As mysteries go, I was more curious about the resolution of it than empathetic with the person who died.

I loved the Vietnamese references – the culture, the mouth-watering descriptions of food, the rituals and attitudes, especially as practiced in the U.S. The protagonist, Rick, is self-effacing with a sense of humor, mostly directed at himself. I appreciated reading about his early life, abandoned at a Catholic orphanage when he was 5.

The explanation of “frozen men,” those souls so damaged by what happened during the war that they are just waiting to die, tugged at my heartstrings.

For me, the end was wrapped up a little too neatly, too much explanation came too easily, but I still enjoyed the story.

This book has a nice combination of intrigue and heart, and doesn't rely on violence to tell its story. It's a series I'm going to keep on my radar.

I was given an advance reader's copy of this book for review.… (more)

Not everyone believes beautiful Mary Le's death in a drive-by shooting was an accident. Although he's left his days as a policeman behind, Rick Van Lam is asked to investigate. As a boi doi, the child of a Vietnamese mother and a US soldier, Rick isn't always welcome in Connecticut's Vietnamese community but with the help of his young friend, Hank, his landlady - a former Rockette, and his ex-wife, Rick is determined to uncover the truth about Mary's death.

Fast-paced and well-plotted with and interesting "outsider" as the main character, this is an entertaining read and hopefully the first of many Rick Van Lam mysteries.

Note: this review is based on an ARC received from the publisher… (more)

Rick Van Lam is a boi doi. In Vietnamese this means he is a child of dust. His mother was a Vietnamese woman and his father an unknown American soldier. Born during the Vietnamese war, Rick was scorned by both cultures. His mother abandoned him to a Catholic Charity when he was about five years old. Eventually, by about his thirteenth year, no one knew his exact birthday, he was sent to the States where he was adopted. Rick adjusted fairly well, going on to study Criminal Justice in college. He did a stint as a policeman that ended after a fatal shoot out with a street punk. Rick turned to a less violent side of the law, taking a job as a private investigator for a small one man insurance investigation firm. He supplemented his income by teaching Criminal Justice at a local college in Hartford, Ct. Rick reconnected with his Vietnamese heritage through Hank Nguyen, one of his criminology students. Hank was full blooded Vietnamese and at first they didn’t hit it off very well. Hank had been raised by his family to regard people like Rick, half Vietnamese, half American, as someone to be hated and demeaned. After a series of confrontations the two found much common ground and become the best of friends. Hank even invited Rick into his home. Although Hank’s father and grandfather continued to hang onto their hatred, Hank’s grandmother and mother soon welcomed Rick into their family. Rick took Hank under his wing and began to teach him the ins and outs of being a private investigator. Their first big challenge comes when a relative of Hank’s is shot down in broad daylight on a street corner in the heart of a drug infested, gangland area of the city. A place where the beautiful Ms. Le would never be caught dead. This is an entertaining book, with a good plot that is very convoluted. I enjoyed learning more about the Vietnamese American culture. Book provided for review by Poisoned Pen Press.… (more)