Caught Dead

October 15, 2014
Amerasian private detective Rick Van Lam is hired to look into the deaths of beautiful Vietnamese twins. Hank Nguyen, a distant relative of the twins, once despised Rick, the teacher of his criminal justice class, for being half-white. But now Rick is his mentor as he goes through the Connecticut State Police Academy. Mary Le Vu was the poor sister who hardly ever left her East Hartford neighborhood or her husband Benny's failing grocery in Little Saigon. When she's killed in a drive-by shooting in a dangerous area, the police put it down to bad luck, until the same thing happens to her wealthy sister, Molly Le Torcelli. Hank's status as a relative gives Rick a chance to talk to all the family members, rich, poor and dysfunctional. The twins' four children and the maid's son were all sent to expensive private schools with varying results. Mary's son, Tommy, a rebel who dropped out after being caught smoking pot, survives on menial jobs. His sister, Cindy, who's bright but not a beauty like her mother, compensates by wearing loud clothes and clownlike makeup. The children of Larry Torcelli, a wealthy man with several car dealerships who paid for the children's educations, are Yale grad and perennial student Jon and his gorgeous, dim-bulb younger sister, Kristen. The odd man out is handsome, brilliant, ambitious Danny Trinh, the son of Susie, the maid. Larry's favorite, he has a good job with a large bank. Rick gathers information on this brood with the help of his ex-wife, Liz Sanburn, a police psychologist, and his partner, Jimmy Gadowicz. Together they try to figure out which of the usual motives-money, drugs, love-is behind the two murders. The first entry in a planned series features a complex detective whose background as an Amerasian orphan born in Vietnam profoundly influences everything he does.

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October 1, 2014
Connecticut insurance investigator Viet Rick Van Lam has one memory of life in Vietnam: his mother telling him that he was destined to become a police officer, a seeker after justice. After his dying mother leaves him at an orphanage, Rick is sent to America. Rick is boi doia child of the dustpart of a generation of Vietnamese children with American GI fathers. Rick becomes a New York City police officer but doesn't like the man it turns him into. Life in Hartford is much more mellow, until a Vietnamese beauty is gunned down in one of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. Mary Le Vu and her twin sister were well known in their tight-knit community, and no one can imagine why Mary would have been in the middle of gang territory all alone. Rick's friend Hank asks him to investigate and helps him navigate Little Saigon and the strong family ties that run it. Rick has an eclectic support systemHank, his aging insurance mentor, a landlady who used to be a Rockette, and his ex-wife and frequent dinner companion, Liz. A unique investigator in a crowded field. This is a series to watch.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 1, 2014
At the outset of this masterful series debut from Lahn (the pseudonym of Ed Ifkovic, author of Final Curtain and four other Edna Ferber mysteries), set in Hartford, Conn., Hank Nguyen begs his former professor, insurance fraud investigator Rick Van Lam, to take a look at the drive-by shooting of his relative, Mary Le Vu, who was known as one of the local Vietnamese community’s “beautiful Le sisters.” While the Hartford police are convinced Mary’s death was just collateral damage in a gang war, Rick insists that the solution must lie in the lives of the first- and second-generation immigrants in her family. The Le family members initially seem to fit into obvious molds—the spoiled heiress, the grieving widower, the conservative immigrant parents—but Lanh expertly avoids stereotypes. Each character proves to be a richly drawn enigma. Indeed, Rick’s exploration of the Le family is so engaging that readers may forget about the mystery itself. Lanh’s faithful portrayal of the complexity of the human experience demonstrates that people, with their secrets and devious motives, are the most captivating mysteries of all.