The Handover Mysteries Series

THIS IS THE REVISED AND RE-EDITED VERSION, WITH UPDATED ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, THANKS, EYES & EARS EDITIONS "Kung delivers a touching story enriched by its strong Hong Kong atmosphere.” Publishers Weekly "This is a Hong Kong readers don’t come across very often and the author brings the city alive." Chicago Tribune Hong Kong's Lunar New Year break is over and Business World’s testy New York editors are howling for China copy. Unfortunately, Hong Kong bureau chief Claire Raymond’s new colleague Vic has gone missing. Plus, she’s contending with a nasty surprise on her doorstep—a Chinese mainland doctor confessing to murder. With only a year to go before Beijing takes over the British colony, China's transition to power is revealing its dark and lawless side. Claire's desperate search to rescue Vic across Hong Kong’s border with China leads through the free-for-all landscape of Guangdong's coastal export boom into the murky use of Communist prison labor to feed the organ transplant trade. And Claire's hard-won career in a man’s world may be meeting stiff competition for her attention now that she’s met the dashing Swiss, Xavier Vonalp, setting up a Hong Kong base for his UN employers. Novelist D. L. Kung worked as a journalist for over twenty years in Asia for publications including Business Week, the Economist, the Washington Post, National Public Radio and the International Herald Tribune. Kung won the Overseas Press Club award for Best Humanitarian Coverage in 1991 and was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2004.

It's Christmas week in Hong Kong and Business World bureau chief Claire Raymond should be covering the British colony’s impending handover to Beijing’s rule. Sidelined on maternity leave she can’t help investigating why neighbor Vicky Sandford's son Petey died at the end of May Road. When a second toddler disappears, Claire’s apprehension for her newborn turns to terror. Not even the inconvenient visit of the seductive photographer Fabienne—an old flame of Xavier's who thinks she's still new—can eclipse Claire's anxiety, echoed in the rising religious hysteria among the district's Filipina babysitters and housekeepers. --Kung delivers a touching story enriched by its strong atmosphere-- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review --There's much to admire in Küng's debut: vivid Hong Kong backgrounds, a sharp eye for conflicts of class and nationality, and the looming threat to the heroine's family--Kirkus Reviews --Kung finds a key plot element in the hidden lives of the thousands of Filipinas who come to Hong Kong as servants for affluent families and live almost like slaves--The Washington Post --It would be easy to assume that Hong Kong is populated solely by spies and incredibly rich people who made their fortunes off the backs of peasants. What distinguishes this book is a compelling sense of place. This is a Hong Kong readers don't come across very often and the author brings the city alive. It's an unusual debut--Chris Petrakos, The Chicago Tribune Novelist D. L. Kung worked as a journalist for over twenty years in Asia for publications including Business Week, the Economist, the Washington Post, National Public Radio and the International Herald Tribune. Kung won the Overseas Press Club Award for Humanitarian Coverage in 1991. The author of seven novels, Kung was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2004.

High in the remote Himalayas, who is the traitor—the nervous Dr. Chamba, the dashing Dr. Norsang, the beautiful nurse DaDon or the weary Swiss-Tibetan Kelsang? Xavier Vonalp takes journalist Claire Raymond to his medical project in Tibet on a quest to nail the informer betraying Tibetan patients fleeing to Nepal. Identifying which of his colleagues is the deadly turncoat is hard enough, but on the eve of their departure from Hong Kong, Claire's ex-lover Jim returns to beg a sensitive favor. A Korean War vet, Jim's father trained Khampas to resist the Chinese occupation of Tibet. His plane crashed in the Himalayas but no body was found. Against her better judgment, Claire investigates and before she knows it, she's smuggling a fugitive Tibetan freedom fighter to safety from Jim's deadly “discipline,” and fighting to help Xavier, trapped by the informer on espionage charges, escape a ten-year Chinese prison sentence. Who’s betraying whom? And how long can Claire risk Xavier’s project for the sake of unfinished business with Jim? In this moving culmination to the third and final volume of D. L. Kung’s "The Handover Mysteries," Claire discovers the fate of Jim's father—a symbolic finale to the end of American influence over the now-confident Beijing regime. --Kung delivers a touching story enriched by its strong atmosphere." Publishers Weekly, Starred Review for volume II of The Handover Mysteries --A compelling sense of place... It's an unusual debut--lyrical and suspenseful." Chicago Tribune. Novelist D. L. Kung worked as a journalist for over twenty years in Asia for publications including Business Week, the Economist, the Washington Post, National Public Radio and the International Herald Tribune. Kung won the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Humanitarian Coverage in 1991. The author of six novels, Kung was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2004