This bizarre thriller fits into a genre that can only be described as “entertainment for older white males who are captivated by adventures with Asian women.” The most disturbing thing about the book is the contempt the main characters, Detective Zhong Fong and lawyer Robert Owen, show for the Chinese people, especially Chinese women. The Hua Shan Hospital Murders is riddled with stereotypes and clichés that make fun of Chinese people’s mannerisms and the way they speak.

The character of Zhong Fong is the enthusiastic invention of David Rotenberg, an acting teacher and playwright who lives in Toronto. In this sequel to The Shanghai Murders, the unlikable curmudgeon is made head of Special Investigations in the Shanghai Unit. A zealot named Angel Michael, who believes that the murdering of babies is wrong (as babies carry the seeds of a sacred light), bombs an abortion clinic. Fong enlists the help of the morose Robert Owens, who is searching for his orphaned sister, to help him find the culprit.

The novel reads like a speedily written treatment for a movie. Zhong is a self-absorbed cold fish who is unable to relate to his wife and baby as he is still haunted by erotic memories from his relationship with a famous Chinese actress. The character of Robert Owens, a lawyer turned antique smuggler, resents women who arouse him because of his problems with his mentally ill mother. Both characters constantly criticize and dehumanize the East Asian female characters in their angry inner dialogues, constantly measuring them according to their accessibility or potential for erotic imagination.

It is only fair to warn readers that they may find this novel offensive, indulging as it does the presumption that the master-slave relationship between white American men and East Asian women is still acceptable in this day and age.