After the violent murder of her younger brother, Ky Tran returns to her home in Cabramatta, Australia, a suburb of Sydney known as the "heroin capital of Australia." Upon learning that her parents had refused an autopsy and that the police had no leads or suspects, despite the murder having taken place at a populated restaurant, Ky - a journalist - offers to help the police by speaking to the witnesses to try to piece together what really happened to her brother.

Although this is categorized as a thriller, I would argue that it is more of a literary family drama/cultural heritage story with a bit of mystery thrown in. Set in an area of Australia populated by Vietnamese immigrants following the Vietnam War, the story alternates between Ky's perspective and those of the witnesses she speaks to, weaving in and out of their lives, touching on the trauma, suspicions, expectations, and longheld cultural beliefs they carry with them. Ky has to navigate through the lives of all these people while questioning how well she really knew her brother, to whom she was very close, and whether or not he was still the kind, high-achieving, "good" boy she grew up with.

This was a great exploration of a community and a family equal parts connected and devastated by both a shared culture and a tragic crime. Every character had their own unique voice and backstory, but they were presented in a way that enhanced, rather than detracted from the overall plot. This was well-written, fast-paced, and engaging, and I couldn't put it down.

Ky and Denny Tran are the children of Vietnamese refugees who came to Australia for a better life and freedom. Both are well-behaved and straight A students as is demanded by their hard-working parents. They live in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, notorious for its gangs and drug related violence. The story opens with the brutal and senseless murder of Denny on the night of his high school graduation. Ky, now working as a journalist in Melbourne, returns for his funeral. With her parents bereft and barely functional, Ky is frustrated to learn that police have provided no details as to the circumstances of her brother’s death. She sets out to learn the truth. This book gave great insight into the culture of Vietnamese life and the difficulties of the community in assimilating into the Australian way of life. While I enjoyed the book overall, I did find it dragged and felt it could have been much shorter. It wasn’t a page-turner and I didn’t develop the empathy for the characters that I would have liked.

• Intriguing and engaging story
• Touches many important topics

• Lacks a punch
• The topics related to Vietnam sometimes can be too controversial

What a wonderful book! I loved this one. It's so layered and nuanced. It's like a family drama, inside a crime novel, inside a recent historical fiction (1990's). The families in the story are not real, but the back drop of a suburb going through a heroin epidemic, and the people living there, and the immigration stories from Vietnamese families fleeing after the war are all based on very real events.

Set in Cabramatta in the 90's, it is the story of Ky whose younger brother Denny has been killed while out celebrating the end of Year 12. Ky returns home for the funeral and learns that no one seems to know exactly what happened that night, so she sets out to find out. It's heartbreaking and frustrating and all told so beautifully. Tracey Lien is an incredible writer.

I'm really glad I finally picked it up.