Beijing Payback by Daniel Nieh
Genre: Thriller/crime
Publisher: Harper Collins/ Ecco
Publication Date: July 23, 2019
Summary:
College student Victor Li‘s father has been murdered. Overwhelmed by grief, he and his sister Jules are stunned to learn that their father wasn’t only a restaurateur: he was linked with a crime syndicate in China. A young man named Sun, who claims to have worked for “old Li” for years (unbeknownst to old Li’s American family) arrives and tells Victor that his late father and three other men in Beijing had formed a “brotherhood” that smuggled goods from China to America. Sun also tells Victor that his father’s refusal to smuggle some mysterious, horrible thing called “Ice” (obviously not frozen water!) has turned two of the brotherhood against him. These are powerful, dangerous men. The implication is clear: two of old Li’s oldest friends have had him killed.
Li has written his son a letter to be given to Victor in the case of his death, instructing him to help Sun put an end to these men’s depravity. Against Jules’ advice (and a lot of other people’s advice, too), Victor skips class registration, boards a plane, and heads to Beijing with Sun. One of Li’s friends will help them. Soon Victor is in a strange world of organized crime, foreign reporters, police tails, Russian prostitutes, and gangsters–and bloodshed. A lot of bloodshed. And it’s anyone’s guess as to whether he’ll make it out alive.
What worked for me:
The well-developed characters
I particularly liked the fun interplay between Victor, his long-time best buddy Andre, and their roommate Eli. They’re funny, quirky, and genuinely seem to care about each other, though in their college-boy phase of life, that looks more like back-slapping and fist-bumping than hugs and crying on each other’s shoulders. The interaction between Victor and his two roommates helps show Victor’s emotions of grief at his dad’s murder and his anger at the kid-glove treatment the rest of the world gives him.
Jules, Victor’s sister, is a terrific character, too. She’s irritating, acid-tongued, and uptight, but she assesses situations better than Victor. She deeply loves her brother. Her character arc, while not deeply developed, is compelling and right for her character.
The backstory
There’s a lot of background information that we need as we read this book: old Li’s friendship and business dealings with the brotherhood, his character, etc. Not all of it can be conveyed in the present time because he’s dead when the novel opens. Nieh uses a lengthy letter from Li to his son to give us a picture of Li, his childhood (including really interesting information about the changes in Chinese culture after the revolution), his friendships with the others in the brotherhood, and how and why he had deceived his children. Nieh gives Li a writing voice of his own that is both revealing and entertaining and in sync with the other accounts of his personality. Even though all of it is backstory, it moves the story along.
The strong ending
Obviously, I’m not going to spoil it for you! But after everything the characters have been through in both America and China, this resolution is satisfying. Well done.
What didn’t work for me:
The middle section in Beijing slowed me down. Somehow, even with the characters running into life-threatening danger, I felt that the writing dragged its feet a bit. Victor’s thoughts center around his anger at his father for his double life, his grief, and his father’s instructions. His father’s last instructions have shattered his world but also opened it to a bigger one. It’s compelling for a while, but I got a bit tired of the repetition.
There’s also a sex scene thrown in late in the novel. (Victor’s inability to hook up with the women he wants to hook up with has been a recurring motif in the book.) It doesn’t add much to the story.
Overall, a strong novel.
Bonus tip for writers:
When writing about a culture that your target demographic is unfamiliar with, be careful how you “tell” your audience about it.
Sometimes novels that take place in two different cultures can info-dump the differences in attitude, language, social norms, etc. But not here. Although he is of Chinese descent, Victor is a stranger to Beijing. (His father jokes that he writes his final letter in simple Chinese because his son got a B+ in Business Chinese 202. Obviously, Victor’s not fluent yet, at least in his father’s opinion!) Fortunately, Victor has Sun along to translate both language (when Business Chinese 202 won’t suffice) and the culture. Nieh’s explanations for us don’t feel awkward because they are disguised as Sun’s explanations to the ignorant Victor.
Note:
Thanks to Netgalley, Harper Collins, and Daniel Nieh for providing an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review. This review also appears on Goodreads and Bookbub. It is also part of my Year of the Asian reading challenge.