Dragon Day [Paperback]

Ellie McEnroe is an Iraq War vet living in Beijing, where she represents the work of cutting-edge Chinese political artists. She has one bum leg, a taste for dumplings and beer, and a sweet-tempered rescue mutt for a roommate. She also has Chinese Domestic Security on her tail and a dwindling number of Percocets to get her through her bad days.

And she’s about to have some bad days. The immensely powerful—and occasionally homicidal—Shanghai billionaire Sidney Cao has asked Ellie to investigate his son’s suspicious new American business partner. Ellie knows she can’t refuse and is grudgingly swept up into the elite social circles of Sidney’s three children: debauched Guwei, rebellious Meimei and social climber Tiantian. When a waitress is murdered at one of Tiantian’s parties, the last thing Ellie wants is to get sucked into a huge scandal involving China’s rich and powerful. But Ellie quickly becomes the most convenient suspect. She realizes she’ll have to figure out who really did it—and even that might not be enough to save herself.Praise forDragon Day 

ASeattle TimesBest Mystery of 2015

“Excellent . . . Ellie McEnroe, our guide, is a piece of work: an expatriate American veteran of Iraq with a bad leg and a worse attitude . . . Brackmann is terrific at evoking both the glitz of modern high-society China and Ellie’s hand-to-mouth existence in some of Beijing’s less reputable corners.
—The Seattle Times

Edgy . . . When Ellie becomes a convenient murder suspect—her business card is found on the body of a waitress at a party—she must navigate China’s elite and their kids, plus corruption on every level, to find the real culprit.
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Spot-on modern China noir and brushstroke-perfect descriptions of the new China make ló