Second Sister

Chan Ho-Kei's The Borrowed was one of the most acclaimed international crime novels of recent years, a vivid and compelling tale of power, corruption, and the law, spanning five decades of the history of Hong Kong. Now he delivers Second Sister, an up-to-the-minute tale of a Darwinian digital city where everyone from tech entrepreneurs to teenagers is struggling for the top.

A schoolgirl--Siu-Man--has committed suicide, leaping from her twenty-second floor window to the pavement below. Siu-Man was an orphan, and Nga-Yee, the librarian older sister who'd been raising her, refuses to believe there was no foul play--although nothing seemed amiss. She contacts a man known only as N--a hacker and an expert in cyber-security and manipulating human behavior. But can Nga-Yee interest him sufficiently to take her case, and can she afford it if he says yes?

What follows is a cat-and-mouse game through the city of Hong Kong and its digital underground, especially an online gossip platform, where someone has been slandering Siu-Man.

The novel is also populated by a man harassing girls on mass transit; high school kids, with their competing agendas and social dramas; a Hong Kong digital company courting an American venture capitalist; and the Triads, market women and noodle shop proprietors who frequent N's neighborhood of Sai Wan.

In the end, it all comes together to tell us who caused Siu-Man's death and why, and to ask--in a world where online and offline dialogue has forgotten about the real people on the other end--what is the proper punishment?

“"Sharp-witted...intense...unveils a dangerous swirl of petty feuds, cybertheft, and the existence of a predator stalking Hong Kong."”

"A very timely and propulsively plotted tale of cyberbullying and revenge."

-- "Criminal Element"

"His knowledge of the latest technology shines through in his new high-tech thriller."

-- "Asian Review of Books"

"In this clever, twisty novel...Chan populates the plot with realistic characterizations. Fans of hacker thrillers such as Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander books will be amply rewarded."

-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

"Reads more like a mainstream mystery than a noir until we meet N, the enigmatic hacker Nga-Yee hires...Their investigation takes us from creepy commuter-train-gropers to the dark reaches of the internet, where evil festers in many forms...Chan has designed an elaborate plot, but as the reversals and red herrings proliferate, the deepest mystery remains N himself."

-- "New York Times"

-- "Booklist"

Chan Ho-Kei was born and raised in Hong Kong, where he still lives. He has worked as a software engineer, script writer, game designer, and editor of comic magazines. Chan's first novel, The Man Who Sold the World, won the Soji Shimada Mystery Award and was published in five languages. His novel The Borrowed was published in more than ten countries, and has been acquired for a film by acclaimed director Wong Kar-Wai.Nancy Wu has narrated audiobooks since 2004, winning three AudioFile Earphones Awards. A New York theater, television, and film actor, she has recorded in studios all over the world--from Italy to Switzerland to Thailand. Her credits include Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Hope & Faith, All My Children, Made for Each Other, and the Oscar-nominated film Frozen River.

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