Michael Allen Dymmoch White Tiger

White Tiger

Michael Allen Dymmoch

St. Martin's, Dec 2005, $24.95, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0312323026

Chicago Police Detective John Thinnes investigates the murder of a Vietnamese-American, starting with interviewing the woman's son Tien Lee. At the morgue, John recognizes the naked victim, having lived in her Saigon apartment for six months back in 1972; Hue Ann was the wife of his friend Bobby who apparently died five years ago. The brass pulls John off the case due to the obvious conflict of interest.

An anonymous tipster claims John is Tien's biological father, though the cop is certain that he never slept with his buddy's wife except maybe when he got drunk celebrating the marriage; that evening he remembers nothing else. Additionally Bobby was unable to sire a child. Adding to John's need to get involved, is that the dangerously amoral former Saigon gang leader White Tiger has opened shop in Chicago, allegedly seeking to avenge the homicide of a prostitute named Jasmine back in 1972, though the detective believes that is a Little Saigon cover for this thug's real deadly activities.

Rotating perspectives between Thinnes and his friend psychiatrist Jack Caleb, who was also in the country in 1972, enable readers to obtain a deep look at the horrors and aftermath of the Vietnam War. Both vets try to forget what they saw and did, but vivid gruesome flashbacks do not allow one to escape their past. The murder of Hue, and the word on the Little Saigon streets of the White Tiger preying on everyone, add to John and Jack looking back, especially the cop's need to know what happened the night Bobby married. The current police procedural never takes charge, as it serves more as a window to a past everyone wants to forget, but cannot.

Harriet Klausner