Author: Eric Qiao

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: Wild Rose Press

Pages: 348

As a young boy, Ed was adopted out of a Chinese orphanage. He grew up living the privileged life in LA. As a young man, he has decided that he is going to find the sister that he left behind. Part of that plan involves going to teach in rural China, as part of a UNICEF mission, with fellow UNICEF teacher, Lorie. At their first break, Ed flies out to meet his PI and finds out some distressing news about what is believed to have happened to his sister. Rural China is not exactly his idea of a good time, so he decides to take off. Before he can make a clean break, however, a young girl is murdered. The main suspect: Ed. Now, he and Lorie decide that they must solve the mystery behind this crime, no matter what.

This is Qiao first novel, and I would say that it is a wonderful debut. The story is unique; a premise unlike any that I have read before. The main characters were fully developed, with the secondary characters having enough to them to get a sense of who they are and to be able to visualize them. The setting of this novel is mainly in a very remote area of China (think no electricity or running water), and the author did a spectacular job with his descriptiveness of the location. The only real criticism that I have, is that it could have used a bit more proofreading, as there were some errors that stood out while reading. It was definitely not enough to turn anyone off from reading it, though, as they weren’t abundant or major errors. Had I not known that this was a debut novel, I would not have guessed that this was his first outing. I would say that this is an author to watch!