Rented Grave

Horace Yang, a downtrodden office worker haunted by failure, betrayal, and brutal imprisonment during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, has finally found a way to settle the score. Obsessed with revenge, he presses on to a confrontation that can only end in death.

In Hong Kong’s teeming Yau Ma Tei district, a body is found in a gangster’s limousine. The murder case takes Inspector Lok and his team deep into the heart of the city’s criminal life. Eventually, Lok’s investigation uncovers an evil spawned in the turmoil of 1960s China, where a vicious regime exploited fear and terrorized the masses.

Rented Grave is a crime story about Hong Kong, a modern city entangled in China’s past. Some can’t forget that past, for their wounds still bleed, and their voices still cry out for revenge.

Author Biography

Charles Philipp Martin, author of two Inspector Lok novels, has been an orchestral bass player, jazz musician, broadcaster, and newspaper columnist in Hong Kong. His short stories have appeared in the anthologies Hong Kong Noir and The Killing Rain. Born in New York, he now lives in Seattle with his wife Catherine.