Two years back I reviewed "Year of the Dog," about the exploits of detective Jack Yu, the creation of Chinese-American author Henry Chang, who portrayed New York's Chinatown as a frightfully sordid place. Yu, besides being forced to endure the slings and arrows of a race- baiting police department, suffered a dysfunctional family life.
I remarked that for Chang to retain his readers, he would need to diversify his themes and "make it less painful to empathize with his protagonist." SOHO will be releasing "Red Jade," the third book in Chang's series, this November, but in the interim, I've discovered Ed Lin, who has created another, more reader-friendly Chinatown cop.
Lin's two works are set in the mid-1970s. Before joining the police, Robert Chow, the protagonist, was conscripted and served in a combat unit in Vietnam.