The Golden Gate: A Novel

Written by Amy Chua

Narrated by Robb Moreira, Suzanne Toren and Tim Campbell

"Moreira displays his many years of dramatic training and extensive theatrical experience as he animates characters as diverse as low-life thugs, the upper-class Bainbridge women, and even Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Tim Campbell and Suzanne Toren ably narrate the court deposition sequences. This audiobook is part hard-boiled detective story, part family saga, and wholly good listening!"- AudioFile

Amy Chua's debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change.

In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan’s investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still.

The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris’s sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth—not the powerful influence of Bainbridges’ grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley’s district attorney, or the interest of China's First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings—Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion.

Chua’s riveting debut brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when race and class defined the very essence of power, sex, and justice, and introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, a mixed race former Army officer who is still reckoning with his own history.

A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: Sep 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781250291578

Amy Chua

Amy Chua is the John M. Duff Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Her first book, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability, translated into eight languages, was a New York Times bestseller, an Economist Best Book of the Year and one of the Guardian's Top Political Reads of 2003. Her second book, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance - and Why They Fall, was a critically acclaimed Foreign Affairs bestseller. Amy Chua has appeared frequently on radio and television and her writing has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and the Wilson Quarterly. She lives with her husband, two daughters and two Samoyeds in New Haven, Connecticut.

Reviews for The Golden Gate

[Emily Lassiter Branch · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There's a lot going on in this book - which I expected based on the synopsis, but I was still a bit surprised at the scope of this first novel by Amy Chua. There's an interview with her at the end of the audiobook in which she describes her research methods, and as both a lawyer and a writer of several non-fiction books, she's clearly adept at research. It certainly shows here in this novel where she deftly weaves in historical, political and sociological information to help set the plot and tone to 1944 (and earlier) in Berkeley, California. It's an interesting mix of family drama, political intrigue (both global and local) and murder mystery. The characters are fascinating, particularly homicide detective Al Sullivan, who's called in to help solve the murder of a former presidential candidate. Interwoven throughout is the deposition of the grandmother of the three main suspects, who are her heiresses and granddaughters. But is she a reliable narrator?
It kept me interested throughout, and I found myself really liking the conflicted Detective Sullivan, and by the end was hoping that maybe this could be the start of a series centered on his character. The narration of the audiobook was excellent throughout, and I was happy that I'd chosen to listen to the audio version.