Dragon Day

June 1, 2015
In Brackmann’s rambunctious, well-plotted third and final Ellie McEnroe mystery (after 2013’s Hour of the Rat), the feisty Iraq war veteran, who suffers from PTSD and is addicted to Percocet (which she began using to treat a leg wound), becomes involved with a group of young adults living a decadent and extravagant lifestyle fueled by their parents’ riches. When a waitress who served at one of the group’s soirees is found murdered with Ellie’s business card on her body, Ellie becomes a possible suspect. Meanwhile, Shanghai billionaire Sidney Cao, a parent of three group members, asks Ellie to help uncover the culprit. In her search for answers, Ellie must deal with corrupt politicians and businessmen, political activists, the Beijing police, and the Domestic Service Department responsible for controlling dissidents. By inquiring into affairs that powerful Chinese believe are best left hidden, she exposes both herself and her family to great danger. Readers will be sorry to see the last of Ellie. Agent: Katherine Fausset, Curtis Brown.

Starred review from July 1, 2015
As an American in China who represents cutting-edge Chinese artists, Ellie McEnroe is in a precarious position, with the Domestic Security Department ever on her tail, but now it's becomes downright dangerous. Ellie can't refuse a request from powerful, if possibly homicidal, billionaire art collector Sidney Cao, with whom she's done business in the past, to check out the American companion of one of his sons. So she fabricates a story about establishing an art museum to gain access to all three of Cao's children of privilege. After a party at one of the son's palatial homes, a caterer is found dead in a trash heap, with Ellie's card in her pocket, leaving Ellie with the task of identifying the killer in order to clear her own name. Ellie, an Iraq War vet with a bum leg, is a smart and resourceful protagonist who imbibes in beer and a dwindling supply of Percocet to keep her functioning as she tries to protect her mother, who's her neighbor in Beijing, while figuring out her future. This follow-up to Hour of the Rat (2013) is a nonstop thriller, illuminating the Chinese police state in which First they decide you're a threat. Then they find a label for it. Top-notch international crime fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)