The Interior

This is the 2nd of the "Red Princess" mystery series by author Lisa See, who will be coming to Bend as part of the Deschutes Public Library "Author! Author!" program. See also my blog on the first book in the series, Flower Net. Hulan is pregnant with David's child but keeping it secret from everyone in China, or so she thinks, and she is finding continual excuses not to join David in LA. She is continuing her work at the Ministry of Public Security but the cases have become routine and boring. She receives a letter from a woman who worked with her on the Red Soil Farm in the interior when Hulan was a teen and full of revolutionary fervor. Ling Suchee's daughter, Miaoshan, has died, apparently having hung herself. Suchee is sure this is murder and asks Hulan to investigate; after taking a leave from work and going to the poor farm of Suchee, Hulan is inclined to agree. She cannot get the authorities to investigate further, so she decides to go undercover at the nearby factory of American toy manufacturer, Knight International, where Miaoshan had worked.
She calls David as she is leaving Beijing and asks if he can find out anything about Knight International and David taps a former colleague at Phillips, MacKenzie & Stout. Keith seems nervous about David's questions; apparently he has been handling the purchase of Knight International for one of the law firm's major corporate clients, Tartan Industries. As they are walking out of the restaurant after dinner, shots are fired at David and Keith is run down by a car and killed. David assumes he was the target of another Triad attempt to kill him, and that Keith was an innocent victim, but the reverse turns out to be the case. David's old law firm asks him to come back and handle their Chinese clients, including finishing the purchase process for Knight/ Tartan. This would allow David to be with Hulan and he jumps at the chance.
Hulan uncovers horrendous working conditions in the factory, well hidden from the owner and any visitors. Children are working assembly jobs, dangerous machinery regularly causes injuries (Hulan herself is injured her first day on the line), and--if gossip is to be believed--those who are seriously injured disappear permanently. Still the women (all the factory assembly and packing jobs are held by females) put up with it because it is the only way to earn money and, therefore, any independence in this poor rural area of the country.
As David and Hulan eventually join forces, a 2nd murder near Suchee's farm occurs and now Hulan believes the two young people's deaths are not connected to the factory after all. But David is sure murder, bribery and other crimes have happened there, and he is determined to bring the perpetrators to justice. It very nearly costs them both their lives, as a fire, set by the killers, consumes the factory. This book raises disturbing questions about our own country's hypocrisy around labor abuses in China, politically at home, and on the ground in China. As before, a fascinating picture of modern China struggling to free itself from years of bloody and repressive history and take its place in the modern world.