Review by Ian Keogh

Edison Hark is a Chinese-American police detective who was raised among a wealthy American family, the circumstances credibly explained despite his operating in 1936 in San Francisco. After years of absence he’s finally reconnected with the family who need help in finding a missing Chinese maid, Ivy Chen. In a compulsive Volume One, trailing her movements opened up assorted cans of worms, not least a claim to be the daughter of a legendary Chinatown hitman proved to be nothing but a myth to keep people in line, yet now with a string of murders to his name.

The opening chapter of this conclusion is spent almost exclusively in the past, Pornsak Pichetshote extracting the maximum tension from the previous volume’s cliffhanger ending while explaining more about Hark’s family background. It confirms some aspects only hinted at before, and when it returns to the present of 1936 it’s with a brilliantly plotted complication.

At first it seems that after supplying so much information, Pichetshote is going to take the path of a predictable noir conclusion, and with the work put in so far no-one could legitimately blame him were that the case. However, that isn’t the path followed, and Pichetshote applies a curve to an already complicated plot and simultaneously supplies a reason for a narrative switch during Volume One. Along the way he briefly shows how, rightly or wrongly, actions have consequences, and not always for the right people.

Artistically, this is another stunning set of pages from Alexandre Tefenkgi, delivering plot, people and place with an absolute certainty. There’s a deceptive simplicity to his art, but absolutely everything is there, not a line out of place.

So much thought has been applied to The Good Asian. Every time everything seems to have fallen into place, another twist manifests. Some like an ambidextrous hitman are merely for the sake of drama, but others have real resonance, and it seems there’s absolutely nothing about The Good Asian that’s been a random choice. Everything connects, and so complicated have matters become, explanations occupy most of the final chapter, but it all holds together.

This is so good any serious fan of crime drama in any form shouldn’t be messing about with the paperbacks, but instead just head straight for the hardback 1936 presenting the entire story. It’s promised Edison Hark will return, but that’s both delight and trepidation. Can Pichetshote and Tefenkgi pull off something this good again?