No good to cry
Subtitle: a Rick Van Lam mystery
By: Andrew Lanh
Edition: First Edition.
Series: A Rick Van Lam mystery -- [3]
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781464206399; 9781464206412
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Vietnamese American gangs; American Dream; Private investigators; Vietnamese Americans; Amerasians; Fiction
Description: "On a sunny afternoon in Hartford, Connecticut, PI Rick Van Lams Vietnam-vet mentor and partner, Jimmy, and Jimmys old army pal, Ralph, are attacked as they walk down a city sidewalk.  Ralph is killed, and Jimmy, backing up, is struck by a car.  While the battered Jimmy is under the care of Ricks landlord and friend, Gracie, where an improbable romance seems to be blooming, Rick finds himself in a quandary-- hes asked to clear the name of the two attackers named by the police.  One is a boy named Simon Tran, known as Saigon, the other, Simons buddy, Frankie Croix.  Rick himself is a bui doi or child of dust, meaning the child of a Vietnamese mother and an American GI father.  Leading a life of disdain and torment in a Ho Chi Minh City orphanage as a child, a battered Rick turned on a newly arrived child of dust, a more despised case: a boy who was the son of a Vietnamese mother and a black GI.  Hes still ashamed of how savagely pleased he was to have another boy become the new target for mistreatment, someone the Vietnamese community viewed as even lower than him.  Years later, in Hartford, Rick has to grapple with that troubling childhood memory because Simon is the son of the same bui doi, Mike Tran.  Mike is a hard-working, decent man.  Despite the difficulties of being Amerasian, he embodies the American Dream: a house, a loving wife, and exemplary children-- students at prestigious private schools and colleges.  Except for Simon, who seems hell-bent on a life of crime.  Working with Hank Nguyen, a young colleague now a state-cop-in-training, Rick tracks Simon to a Vietnamese gang in Little Saigon.  How can he not strive to save Simon and Frankie, boys who refuse to be saved?  And who may be facing not just murder charges but becoming victims in a vicious gangland war?"--Page [4] of cover.