ReviewE-book reviews: a Hong Kong-set chiller debut; Stephen Fry reads Harry Potter
Expat American writer Coco Richter’s first novel has an uneven tone but once the plot gets going, the suspense builds nicely; veteran British actor has fun with J. K. Rowling’s prose and characters
By Coco Richter
Inkstone Books (e-book)
3 stars
Tempting the Dragon is the debut novel by Coco Richter. It is, to quote her title, tempting to draw parallels between art and life. Like her heroine, Jess Winter, Richter relocated to Hong Kong from the United States. But whereas Richter turned from law to writing, Jess Winter teaches maths at the International School alongside Adam Brewer, her partner of just 10 months. Out of an interesting, detailed (sometimes a little exhaustingly so) account of first impressions of Happy Valley and the global ubiquity of IKEA emerges a thriller with supernatural undertones. The prose is readable enough, but can be slightly stiff at times (“I’m told I’m attractive in an androgynous sort of way”), and overly pedantic at others: a drink cart that moves almost as slowly on the page as down a plane aisle. I still don’t know if Jess’ habit of exclaiming “Damnit!” was endearing or odd. The nightmares that give clues to Jess’ horrific past (they began after her mother’s death) are nicely spooky, if convenient in way that actual dreams tend not to be. Stay with it, though. Once the plot finally gets going, the suspense builds, climaxing in a genuinely strange and unnerving conclusion. A curious, uneven but promising first book.
