Author Name: Marilynn Larew

Book Title: Hong Kong Central

Book Genre: Thriller

Release Date: December 11, 2017

Synopsis: Despite quitting the CIA, Lee Carruthers is in Hong Kong doing a job for Sidney Worthington. He thinks something is wrong at Wong’s Antiques. Lee finds Henry Wong—just as he’s being kidnapped by the Chau Fong Triad. What do they want with him? That’s just one question, as Lee reunites with an old lover, is caught in the middle of burgeoning democracy demonstrations, and uncovers secrets that may upend her life again.

Excerpt: “Why didn’t they just shoot us?” Sidney asked.

“They will tomorrow. We need to leave.”

Sidney laughed. “How? Through the roof?”

The roof was made of pottery tiles laid on rafters.

“Looks like it,” I said.

A trunk, an old table, and three wooden chairs were stored in the attic. The trunk was full of curtains. I pulled them out and gave one to Sidney. “Tear them into strips ten inches wide.” When we finished ripping the strips, I tied three together and handed the top to Sidney to hold while I braided. I tied strips at the end of those strips and braided some more. When we finished, I had a long lumpy braid of cloth. I hoped it would hold me.

I used my phone as a flashlight. The tiles were fused together with moss. Were the rafters too close together to get through? I placed a chair on the table and stood on it, but I couldn’t reach the tiles. I got down and broke a leg off of another chair and got back up. I poked the tile closest to the wall with the chair leg, shoving as hard as I could. The chair I was standing on rocked, and Sidney grabbed it. I leaned into the wall to steady myself. The thought of being shot in the morning focused my mind on that damn tile. I pounded until the tile came loose. I moved on to the next tile. It was a little easier. I loosened five tiles.

I couldn’t quite reach the rafters. I would have to jump, grab hold of the rafters, and pull myself up between them. I would only have one chance. “One. Two. Three.” I jumped and grabbed a rafter and pulled until I got hold of the second rafter. I pulled myself up until I was sitting on the edge of the wall, panting.

Sidney handed me the rope, and I fixed it around the rafter and walked down the wall. At the end of the rope I couldn’t see the ground. Well, hell. I let go of the rope.

About the author:  MARILYNN LAREW is a historian who has published in such diverse fields as American colonial and architectural history, Vietnamese military history, and terrorism, and has taught courses in each of them in the University of Maryland System.

This is the third volume in the Lee Carruthers series. She has also published Aftermath, in which the protagonist, Anne Carter, is a 1980 Baltimore PI, working in the wake of the Vietnamese War.

She lives with her husband in a 200-year-old brick farmhouse on the Mason-Dixon Line in southern Pennsylvania. She belongs to Sisters in Crime, Guppies, and Chinese Military History Society. Find out more about her and her books at www.marilynnlarew.com

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