A review by nursenell
Murder in Chinatown by Victoria Thompson

5.0

Another excellent story about the team of Sarah Brandt, midwife, and Frank Malloy, cop. This story is set in Chinatown in New York City. Many Irish immigrant women married Chinese men because most of the Chinese who came here were men, not women. The Irish women often preferred marrying the Chinese because it gave them a higher standard of living. All those Chinese laundries we see in movies were actually very lucrative businesses. Such marriages were win/win for both parties: the Chinese men tended to be good husbands, the women had stable living conditions, the men weren't deported because they were married. The downside was the rest of the Irish community pretty much disowned family members who married the Chinese, and the Chinese looked down on their own who married the Irish. But within the community of the Irish-Chinese families life was pretty good.

When a 15 y.o. Chinese/Irish girl turns up murdered after running away because her father was going to marry her off to a very wealthy 40 y.o. Chinese man there is no shortage of suspects among both the Irish and Chinese.

This was the first time I became aware of the alliance between the Irish and Chinese in the turn of the 19th century time. I'd like to learn more.