The Two Chinatowns

Rating:
Summary: the two chinatowns
Review: absolutely terrible writing. Very dissapointed.
mark goldstein
scottsdale az

Rating:
Summary: the two chinatowns
Review: absolutely terrible writing. Very dissapointed.
mark goldstein
scottsdale az

Rating:
Summary: Real Police Work Told With Restraint
Review: Cisco has been a somewhat minor character, but in this book, The Two Chinatowns, he takes center-stage in a thrilling multi-national manhunt. His character has a charm that will appeal to all. Sure he's an egotist, but it's not ego....its Fact!! He is a great cop. His interaction with the Toronto PD and his own NYPD shows just how great he is. His dialogue, as written by Mr. Mahoney, is sometimes funny and sometimes serious, but always right on the money. I've read all of Dan Mahoney's books and since I love them all, I'd be hard-pressed to "slot" this one into a ranking. It's great....you'll enjoy it!!

Rating:
Summary: Mahoney Knows His Stuff!!
Review: Dan Mahoney is unique in that he does not write the usual police or detective "thriller." What he really writes are police-procedure novels. As a retired NYPD Captain he takes you behind the sceens and shows you exactly how a law enforcement team (and, of course, the novel's hero) track down the bad guys. You are in on their conversations, their thoughts, and their actions. If you want to know how it all works, plus get-to-know a number of fascinating characters, this is your book. I gave it 4 stars, not 5, because I miss Mahoney's usual hero, "McKenna"; this book features one of his other detectives, "Cisco" who was a minor character in other Mahoney books. A good read!

Rating:
Summary: Badly written with worse premise
Review: The idea that a guy, upon merely SEEING a girl, would fly back and forth between Hong Kong and New York just to see her; learn Chinese just to talk to her; all before actually meeting her is ridiculous. Mahoney may try to pass it off as romantic and "meant to be" but c'mon, let's get real. On a cop's salary no less? Does he know how much roundtrip tickets to Asia cost?

Right away the girl gets killed, and the cop immediately starts referring to her as his fiance. I mean the lovely couple hadn't even discussed it at that point, okay?

Furthermore, I find the idea that a cop could find a Chinese airline attendant so enthralling he is going to go through all the things I mentioned above a little racist and insulting.

Never finished the book

Rating:
Summary: Cheap Life
Review: The Two Chinatowns By Dan Mahoney

This is well written by an author who knows his subject. Dan Mahoney worked as a policeman for 25 years before retiring as a captain. This novel is written carefully with the smallest detail covered. It is a tragic adventure that covers two cities in two different countries in America with the exciting final in Hong Kong, Singapore and Guam. Cisco Sanchez the star in the story claims to be the best detective in New York. Besides, he is a boxer for the New York police team and an actor in the ring who has never lost a fight.

Cisco saw Sue Hsu the woman he wanted to marry. She was an airline hostess. As usual he planned every move to meet her under the best of circumstances. He even took a flight she was working before introducing himself. Everything worked as planned except she was killed by a group of Chinese, part of the `Born to Kill' street gang. She accidentally got in their way on the way to the ladies toilet. Sue had taken Cisco to visit her Chinese Uncle's restaurant in Toronto when it happened. Cisco swore that he would not rest until all the people concerned with her death were taken down.

Cisco discovered that The Chinese gangsters who contracted the `Born to Kill' street gang were heavily involved with smuggling illegal Chinese into New York and Toronto by way of containers ships from China. The novel grows from there to the climax at the end in Guam.

For ones who are interested this book has some very interesting part facts about smuggling Chinese and other Asians into America. It is a very dangerous, interesting and a lucrative business. Life is very cheap in this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Not his best, or his worst
Review: Up to this point, I've enjoyed Dan Mahoney's books. They're well paced and always entertaining, with a wealth of insider police knowledge, and interesting, if not always entirely believable, characters. This time out, however, there are some serious flaws. Mr. Mahoney takes the time to credit a woman in Toronto for helping with details about the city. Unfortunately, the author should have taken the time to recheck those details because there are some glaring errors. The worst of those is the reference (a number of times) to grand jury hearings. The Canadian judicial system doesn't have grand jury hearings; that's a uniquely American institution. As well, references are made a number of times to a mythical entity called Court House. No such place. There are law courts downtown in various locations, but Court House doesn't exist.

These factual errors aside, the hero, Cisco Sanchez is, unfortunately, barely believable. He's driven to action against the triads because of the murder of Sue Hsu, the woman he plans to marry. Yet, within pages, she seems to be of the distant past. There is very little reference to the depth of his loss or his feelings about it and in no time at all he's been persuaded to begin dating a former lover.

The book has Mahoney's signature speed-of-light narrative, with lots of action, lots of locations, lots of characters, but Cisco is not an entirely sympathetic character (although a likeable one) because of the absence of any depth of emotion. He's all ego and, as the character himself says, (but not meaning it), "You might even say I'm shallow." Well, sadly, yes. He is.

Read Mahoney's earlier books to see what this author can do when he really pulls out all the stops.