Death Doesn’t Forget

More than action thrillers, Lin’s delightful “Taipei Night Market” novels are stories of character and place. Jing-nan owns a popular food stall in Taipei. He’s not the hero type, but trouble repeatedly finds him; he has to extricate himself from complications he didn’t ask for and isn’t prepared to address. In this case, it’s murder—two of them. The lowlife boyfriend of the estranged mother of Jing-nan’s girlfriend Nancy absconds with family money; Nancy asks Jing-nan to act as go-between in retrieving it. The boyfriend is found murdered after Jing-nan’s visit, and a police captain who hates Jing-nan arrests him, ordering torture in an attempt to extort a confession. Jing-nan is eventually set free, but then the captain is murdered. Jing-nan, Nancy, Nancy’s mother, and Jing-nan’s trusty employees Frankie the Cat and Dwayne are drawn into the increasingly confusing hunt for the real killer. The resolution of Lin’s series fourth (after 99 Ways To Die) pushes the bounds of believability but has a rousing finale.