The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu

Written by Tom Lin

Narrated by Feodor Chin

A Chinese American assassin sets out to rescue his kidnapped wife and exact revenge on her abductors in this New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice: a twist on the classic western from "an astonishing new voice" (Jonathan Lethem).

Orphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon's henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad.

Battered, heartbroken, and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant known only as the prophet. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge on the men who destroyed Ming, aided by a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers, whom they meet on the journey. Ming blazes his way across the West, settling old scores with a single-minded devotion that culminates in an explosive and unexpected finale.

Written with the violent ardor of Cormac McCarthy and the otherworldly inventiveness of Ted Chiang, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is at once a thriller, a romance, and a story of one man's quest for redemption in the face of a distinctly American brutality.

"In Tom Lin's novel, the atmosphere of Cormac McCarthy's West, or that of the Coen Brothers' True Grit, gives way to the phantasmagorical shades of Ray Bradbury, Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, and Katherine Dunn's Geek Love. Yet The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu has a velocity and perspective all its own, and is a fierce new version of the Westward Dream." —Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

Winner of the Carnegie Medal for Excellence

Finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781549132292

Tom Lin

Tom Lin is the president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He previously served as vice president and director of missions and the director of the Urbana Student Mission Conference. He also spent several years in Mongolia pioneering campus student ministry with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. He is the author of Pursuing God's Call and Losing Face Finding Grace.Lin has pioneered new Asian American Christian Fellowships at Harvard and Boston University, and served as an IVCF staff trainer, fund development specialist, and missions department consultant. He has leadership experience with a number of Christian ministries, serving the Lausanne Movement as the international deputy director for North America, and serving as a board member for Missio Nexus and The Crowell Trust. He has also served as vice chairperson for the board of Wycliffe Bible Translators. A second-generation Taiwanese American, Lin has developed networks in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Brunei. He has also served as a human resources director of a Fortune 500 company and was leadership pastor at Wellspring Covenant Community Church. He and his wife Nancy live in Madison, Wisconsin, with their two daughters.

Reviews for The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu

[vernefan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin has to be the most bizarre book I've ever read in my life! It is a Western/Fantasy/Crime Thriller. Yes, that's what I said. Crazy mix if I ever saw one but I have to admit…it worked!

Orphaned as a small boy, Ming Tsu is taken in by a man named Silas who is a hired gun in the old west. He trains Ming from childhood to be his apprentice in the world of assassins. Striking out on his own after the death of Silas, Ming Tsu meets beautiful Ada. Back then no white man would ever think of allowing his daughter to marry a Chinaman, and although she was promised to another, the two lovers elope. Not married more than two months, a gang of men hired by her father kidnap her, returning her back home and to her intended. Finding himself in hot water, Ming gets a 10 year sentence working on the railroad driving spikes alongside other men of his country, including a blind prophet who befriends Ming. After many years, he escapes with the prophet and they set out to travel west with Ming hell-bound on revenge. His plan is to find and kill each member of the gang that kidnapped his wife. If all goes well he will get his Ada back.

The two unlikely travelers roam from state to state with a list of the men to die, and tick them off one by one. Our prophet has the gift of sight, as in clairvoyance, and occasionally can aid Ming to ward off danger….and bullets. Along the way they meet up with a small ragtag group of entertainers, each having paranormal gifts. There are four men, one woman, and a small boy. The Ringmaster and his wards pay Ming Tsu to travel with them for protection against any who would harm them and together they all head west knowing Ming’s mission. The supernatural gifts these unusual people are blessed with are very different than I’ve read of in other fantasy books and I thought the author was quite clever with them as they use their abilities to aid Ming.

As a warning, this is a highly violent book. There is an abundance of killing. It is gruesome, very graphic, and not for the weak of heart. Blood and guts everywhere. I have to say it is truly the most violent book I have ever read. However, to balance it all out, the camaraderie and friendships that create emotional bonding between the cast of players is often tender and of great heart. I fell in love with most of the characters and would loved to have seen this motley crew in a series.

How this all ends is on one hand predictable, but on the other hand not so much. I did get a surprise that I didn’t see coming that I still am not sure I liked too much. All in all, I must admit I loved this bizarre story. The writing is beautiful and the key characters are for the most part lovable. Even our bloodthirsty gunslinger has his soft spots. The plot and story-line are well done but I think may have been a bit boring without the fantasy elements to give it flavor.

The reason for my rating of four stars instead of five is simple. Even for a Wild West western, and even with a trained assassin as the lead, the violence got to be over-the-top. If the author had cut it back just a bit, and added a bit more of the fantasy with less blood shed, it would have been a 5 star debut novel. I think Tom Lin is an author to watch and I look forward to his next book.

[daumari · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Short Western revenge quest with magical realism elements. Ming Tsu has a pretty high body count (thus the title), but what I really enjoyed were the descriptions of the arid intermountain west.

I do feel like the MRAzn crowd might like this book, because of the masculine violence as Ming kills those who wronged him in effort to get back to his white wife.

Skimming through some other reviews, some felt he should be "more Chinese", which... feels odd given there's no one singular way to be something? The character was orphaned at a young age and raised/trained by a white man, which would be different from the laborers coming predominantly from southern China, but he knows he's different from the majority because of how they treat him. Maybe Ming can spend some time musing on his identity after going through his vengeance list, but I do think there's something inherent in how the traveling circus became a found family of sorts, as they were all people out of time in a way.

[zachmontana · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lots of killing!! I kept reading thinking it would have some redeeming value, but to the end it was just lots of killing. Somewhat interesting characters and some enlightenment into the racism of the time, but not a book I would recommend.

[mlhershey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very violent. Interesting descriptions and prose. Chinese Ming Tsu seeks revenge. Meets traveling show with supernatural participants. Travels with "Prophet"
Recommended by Lee Farina

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a wronged man doing wrong vengeance tale, but sort of in the background of a hypnotic tale of journeying across the desert collecting a group of very unusual people. The body count is high and increases steadily along the way.

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The plot here is very simple. Ming Tsu is jailed and forced to work on railroad construction in the western United States for several years in the late 1800's. He is separated from his wife who is the love of his life. Once he escapes he goes on a quest for vengeance to make the men pay for what they did to him. He is not above killing many others along the way. That done, his ultimate goal is to reunite with his wife. He has many adventures including a stint with a traveling magic show. This a capably written novel of revenge checkered by love.

[maryreinert · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is like reading a Quentin Tarantino movie! Tons of violence, yet somehow it pulled me into the story and the main character Ming Tsu is memorable. Ming was orphaned and raised by a white man whose life was crime yet he showed love to Ming. Ming has fallen in love with a white woman and they elope. The wife's father has hired killers to kill Ming, but Ada pleads for his life and he is taken to work on the railroad with the other Chinese. Now he is determined to kill those who caused him so much pain.

The kills a man to escape from the railroad and ventures onto a path back to Sacrament to Ada that is filled with violence as he kills one man after another without any kind of remorse or guilt. Along the way he encounters a "traveling show" which shows miracles - one being Hazel who is able to withstand fire. Along with the troupe and the Ringleader is a young boy Hunter.

This is the story of Ming who outwardly is so cold and violent yet is capable of love and tenderness to those around him especially Hazel and Hunter. The travel West is over the mountains and unbelievable scenes of violence and hardship including a gang of killers they meet along the way.

When he reaches Sacrament, he finds Ada (spoiler: his killer reflexes actually kills her). It seems she was afraid of his killing nature and although she loved him, agreed to have him removed from her.

Actually, this is an interesting book and character study of a man so prone to violence, yet capable of so much concern for others. Well-written. (Sometimes, I did have to wonder why I was reading all the blood and killing, yet each chapter pulled me into the other - and the ending was will done).

[grumpydan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a western story set in the time when they were building the transcontinental railroad. It is also a story of revenge and magical realism. Ming Tsu is a Chinese man who was raised by a white man and trained to be an assassin. When his wife is taken from him and he is forced out, he finds himself working on a railroad gang until the time is right to seek his revenge to those who wringed him and get his wife back. With the assistance of and old blind Chinese man known as the Prophet, they set out. They hook up with a traveling magic show as they head west. This is a violent story as the title suggests, and it is all about Ming and how he fits in this world of his. I found it quite enjoyable and fascinating. I was first put off by the magical realism, but it worked and I am glad I read it.

[citizenjoyce · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is more a video game in words than a novel. There are great characters: The Ringleader, The Prophet, The Deaf-Mute Boy who can transmit his voice into other people's minds (but not theirs into his), the Indian who can erase memories, The Woman Who is Impervious to Fire. Then there's Ming Tsu himself a Chinese-American orphan and expert gunslinger who is used to highlight the racism of the west. All of these people together could have made a fascinating story, instead, it's just murder and vengeance over and over and over again. What a waste of a good idea.

[jetangen4571 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

weird-western, violence, retribution, Chinese-hero, assassins, magic, 1870s*****

Think a spaghetti western directed by Quentin Tarantino and Tim Burton. It's been too long since I've read a novel of the Weird Western genre, but now I'm going to hope that I find some again. The plot is odd, the characters are almost believable (c'mon, if you can go with witches...), the violence is less graphic than crime fiction. It's all overlaid on the era of the building of the western railroads and the inequities among people. I liked it a lot!
I requested and received a temporary digital ARC of this book from Little, Brown and Company via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.