Expanding your reading experience can be invigorating with authors that have unique settings and unusual viewpoints. It may be past time for you to expand into Asian (and Asian American) mystery authors. We’ve come a long way since Earl Derr Bigger’s Charlie Chan or John P Marquand’s Kentaro Moto when white men portrayed Asians in demeaning and insulting ways. Now we are importing the best in crime fiction from all over the world. These great authors give us a richer and broader reading experience introducing us to a more authentic portrayal of Asians and of Asian cultures.

Reading right now:

Hong Kong prize winning author Chan Ho-Kei’s second novel was released in June. “Second Sister” centers around Natasha who is raising her 15-year-old sister Anastasia when she comes home one day to find that Anastasia has jumped to her death. Natasha believes that Anastasia may have been killed because of something that happened to her on a Hong Kong subway ride which changed her into a silent and unhappy teen. Natasha sets out to find out the truth which takes her down a dark road of internet bullying, sexual harassment, and teen suicide.

On hold right now:

One of Singapore’s top selling authors Ovidia Yu has written two separate series and one standalone mystery. Her Crown Colony series is an historical series set in 1930s Singapore with amateur sleuth Su Lin, the governess for the Acting Governor of Singapore. The first novel in the series was “The Frangipani Tree Mystery” and while the fourth novel just came out in June and is called “The Mimosa Tree Mystery” (a fifth novel is expected in 2021 “The Cannonball Tree Mystery).

Qiu Xiaolong’s tenth book in his Inspector Chen series “Hold Your Breath, China” finds Chen trying to hunt down a serial killer when he is called away by government officials to infiltrate a group of environmental activists. This latest in the series just came out in June and if you want to start from the beginning the first in the series is “Death of a Red Heroine.” These fascinating books often involve Chen battling the political climate of Shanghai as well as the criminal element.

Chinese author Zhou Haohui is finally following up his first novel in the Death Notice series with “Fate” which is coming out next year. Chengdu Police Captain Pei Tao and his task force caught the killer in “Death Notice,” only to have his protégé continue those killings in “Fate.” Both these killers are punishing those that they felt got off too easily.

Other Mysterious Things:

There are many amazing Japanese authors known for their mystery novels all of which are worth your time: Keigo Higashino, Natsuo Kirino, Hideo Yokoyama, Kazuaki Takano, Tetsuya Honda, and Fuminori Nakamura. Henry Chang is a Chinese American author from New York who wrote the Detective Jack Yu series starting with “Chinatown Beat.” Award winning Japanese American author Naomi Hirahara has two series the Mas Arai series and her LAPD bicycle cop series are both terrific. Filipino author F.H. Batacan’s “Smaller and Smaller Circles” is a must read. Born in Malaysia, Shamini Flint wrote the Inspector Singh Investigates series and the first one was “A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder” which is an excellent series.