Left in the Care of: A Novel of Suspense

New York: Carroll & Graf Pub, 1997. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. A highly collectible first edition/printing, tight clean copy protected in a new brodart wrapper, no inscriptions, unclipped dustjacket, this is not a n Ex-Lib or a BCE/BOMC edition. An accessible aura of intimacy with the lives of ordinary foreigners caught up in the Hong Kong changeover gives this first mystery by a journalist who spent many years there a definite edge. Dinah Kung captures the large by focussing on the small: her story mixes the fears of a new mother about her baby and her relationship with its father with the exotic politics and practices of a city in turmoil. Claire Raymond, anxious to get back to her job as a writer for an American business magazine, is looking for a nurse to mind her 6-week-old son, Caspar. Suddenly, her comfortable apartment enclave is shattered by the mysterious death of one little boy and the kidnapping of another. With the help of a Scottish priest, Claire starts an investigation of her own that is hindered by threats to her son's safety and to the delicate balance of her future with the Swiss diplomat who fathered the boy but still hasn't proposed marriage.