The Last Mandarin

Novelist Penny (the Chief Inspector Gamache novels) and journalist Fung (Between Good and Evil) combine their talents in this intelligent espionage thriller centered on a strained mother-daughter relationship. Food blogger Alice Li is dining in Washington, D.C., with her mother, Vivien, a celebrity dissident who fled China after the Tiananmen Square protests, when a powerful cyberattack triggers a worldwide power outage. In the aftermath, Vivien is called to the White House to help determine if the attack came from China. Alice is surprised when she’s asked to tag along, and then, during a high-level meeting, questioned about her friend Liam Palmer, a fellow foodie who’d invited her to D.C. Alice’s confusion turns to grief when she’s informed that Liam was found murdered in Hong King’s Victoria Harbour, and may not be who he said he was. Thrust into the middle of the investigation, Alice joins forces with her mother, whose notoriety has always irked her, to figure out what caused the attack and prevent future damage. Penny’s trademark humor (“She’d taken refuge there to relieve herself. Of her mother”) mingles well with Fung’s political expertise. The result is an eerily plausible nail-biter. (May)