Hanging the Devil

The latest Cape Weathers mystery (after Boxing the Octopus) has a relentlessly fast-paced plot and delightful dry humor. After being smuggled out of Hong Kong a week earlier, 11-year-old Grace is hiding out at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum, where her uncle is a guard. There she witnesses a helicopter crash through a skylight, which kills her uncle. Then she sees two men and a ghostly figure emerge from the helicopter and steal a priceless statue. She tries to hide, but she’s spotted, so she runs away and ends up in Chinatown, where Sally Mei, Chinatown’s protector, finds her. Sally calls on her business partner, reporter-turned-PI Cape Weathers, who arrives at the art museum in time to meet up with an agent from Interpol who represents the Cultural Heritage Crime Division. The Interpol agent is convinced that the thieves mean to steal more priceless Chinese art. Weathers agrees to work with her to defeat the thieves, but he and Sally have a more important goal: to protect the sole witness and their newest client, Grace.