Review of Fortune Cookie
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Kristine Mariel Diaz
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Review of Fortune Cookie
[Following is a volunteer review of "Fortune Cookie" by John R. Johnson.]
John R. Johnson's thrilling and fictional story "Fortune Cookie" centers on the investigation of the murder of Harry Ma, a Chinese oilfield equipment salesman. Given that the country was seeing an increase in violent crimes against the Asian minority during the pandemic, the crime was first classified as a hate crime.
The story is narrated by two main characters, on the one hand by Detective Valerie Richard, a strong and ambitious woman who puts all her energy into her career in the police department, but who also has to deal with a personal drama, recently divorced from a terrible husband who cheated on her, and who also has a hard time working in a police station where everyone hates her for exposing a corrupt detective.
Alternatively, the story is told from the perspective of Mr. Ma's wife, Amy Chen, a young woman who also worked in the oilfield industry with her husband. She will be perplexed by the range of overlapping emotions surrounding her husband's passing, including grief, suffering, and a great deal of anxiety thinking her husband's killer may pay her a visit.
Amy begins the story by recounting the murder, all the horrible things she saw, and her husband's last words, which will haunt her for days as she tries to figure out what he meant. We follow the investigation from the detective's point of view and quickly learn that the murder may not have been a hate crime, as everyone believes, but rather a secret and illegal deal that Harry Ma was about to close on the day of his murder, involving stolen intellectual property.
Although this is the second book in the series, it can be read as a standalone, and the events of the first book will be perfectly understood by the reader in order to enjoy this one.
The fact that both narrators are female adds a unique viewpoint to the typical detective story, and I find it more relevant because it incorporates their personal tragedies into their responses to each event. The technical details of the novel were sufficiently explained by the author to enable readers who lacked this knowledge to comprehend every section of the narrative.
There is nothing I dislike about the book, the author has created well developed characters that engage the reader right from the start, also the plot was incredibly constructed and kept the suspense until the end, for these reasons my rating for this book is 5 out of 5.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys crime and suspense stories. As for the age rating, the book contains strong language, violence and sexual content, making it more suitable for adult readers.
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Fortune Cookie
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
John R. Johnson's thrilling and fictional story "Fortune Cookie" centers on the investigation of the murder of Harry Ma, a Chinese oilfield equipment salesman. Given that the country was seeing an increase in violent crimes against the Asian minority during the pandemic, the crime was first classified as a hate crime.
The story is narrated by two main characters, on the one hand by Detective Valerie Richard, a strong and ambitious woman who puts all her energy into her career in the police department, but who also has to deal with a personal drama, recently divorced from a terrible husband who cheated on her, and who also has a hard time working in a police station where everyone hates her for exposing a corrupt detective.
Alternatively, the story is told from the perspective of Mr. Ma's wife, Amy Chen, a young woman who also worked in the oilfield industry with her husband. She will be perplexed by the range of overlapping emotions surrounding her husband's passing, including grief, suffering, and a great deal of anxiety thinking her husband's killer may pay her a visit.
Amy begins the story by recounting the murder, all the horrible things she saw, and her husband's last words, which will haunt her for days as she tries to figure out what he meant. We follow the investigation from the detective's point of view and quickly learn that the murder may not have been a hate crime, as everyone believes, but rather a secret and illegal deal that Harry Ma was about to close on the day of his murder, involving stolen intellectual property.
Although this is the second book in the series, it can be read as a standalone, and the events of the first book will be perfectly understood by the reader in order to enjoy this one.
The fact that both narrators are female adds a unique viewpoint to the typical detective story, and I find it more relevant because it incorporates their personal tragedies into their responses to each event. The technical details of the novel were sufficiently explained by the author to enable readers who lacked this knowledge to comprehend every section of the narrative.
There is nothing I dislike about the book, the author has created well developed characters that engage the reader right from the start, also the plot was incredibly constructed and kept the suspense until the end, for these reasons my rating for this book is 5 out of 5.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys crime and suspense stories. As for the age rating, the book contains strong language, violence and sexual content, making it more suitable for adult readers.
******
Fortune Cookie
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Shelby Morrow Series by A. C. Holmes
