Tangled Web UK Review October 2000
The Chinese Girl by
John Baker
pbk out August 00
(Gollancz)
at £9.99
After an eleven year stretch Stoner Lewis has been out of jail for a few weeks and is trying to adjust to the world outside. Home is Hull, where the docks provide plenty of opportunities for criminal undertakings and Stoner knows some of the lowlifes only too well. But he’s keeping well away from trouble and keeping an eye out for his mother, Sally and his aunt Nell who live nearby.
Coming home from the pub one night he finds a beautiful Chinese girl, beaten-up and unconscious in the doorway of his basement flat. He takes her in and looks after her, finds out that she’s come all the way from California to look for her friend whose frequent letters suddenly stopped arriving. Stoner agrees to help but before long the search brings them up against the violent psychopath who has the neighbourhood stitched up and a nasty line in henchmen and guard dogs.
Baker creates an affectionate portrait of a man trying to stay on the straight and narrow after years banged up and of a man falling in love. Although The Chinese Girl contains some grisly and harrowing elements, the importance of dreams, the strength of love and the humanity of the characters create an ultimately uplifting novel which is refreshingly original and absorbing.
Originally appeared in Manchester Evening News 8/9/00
(
Cath Staincliffe
- Author of the highly acclaimed Sal Kilkenny Mysteries set on the Mean Streets of Manchester)
