Expatriate American novelist Anthony Holton, living in Bangkok, hears that his best friend Jake McKay has gone missing in Hong Kong along with his pride and joy, a yacht called The Hong Kong Lady. Holton is on the next plane to help, because Jake is just that kind of friend. He finds a collection of pretty scary people, including the head of a Hong Kong triad, a fugitive diamond smuggler, a young Chinese billionaire, and an American mercenary who knows all the different ways there are to kill a man. Distracted by a dalliance with McKay’s platonic roommate, Kate Longley, Holton finds himself all tangled up in international smuggling—and violent death.

“…a fast-paced, enjoyable Hong Kong adventure… Roberts’ debut as a thriller writer draws on his strength as a plotter, and the book’s economy offers a nice antidote to the bloated thrillers that weigh down many bookshelves.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Excerpt: It is no small matter to steal a 40-foot boat. One doesn’t slip it surreptitiously under a jacket or into the lining of a trench coat. Having successfully negotiated its theft, one doesn’t hide it in the back of the closet behind a pile of dirty shirts, or stash it in a locker at the bus station. And one wouldn’t haggle over the disposal of a stolen yacht in a dim-lit bar or on a street corner or even at a pawnshop. One must have a hiding place in mind when stealing anything that size—and a purpose.

Jake McKay was no dummy; he could figure that out as well as I. And so he went off looking for his Hong Kong Lady, and now he, too, was missing.

Publisher: Five Star

Publication Year: 2001

Pages: 190