The Wild Beasts of Wuhan
An Ava Lee Novel
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4.2 • 10 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"Formidable...Ava Lee is unbeatable at just about everything....She's perfect."—Toronto Star
Meet Ava Lee, alluring but deadly, with a mind like a steel trap, as she chases millions of dollars and dangerous criminals around the globe in this exotic and fast-paced new crime series by Ian Hamilton.
In The Wild Beasts of Wuhan, Wong Changxing, a rich Chinese powerbroker, has just been bilked out of $100 million in an elaborate art forgery con. His one hope of recovering the money, and of saving face, is Ava Lee—a forensic accountant with a talent for tracking down untraceable funds. With the help of her mentor, the Triad-connected Uncle, Ava traces the provenance of the meticulously forged paintings to Denmark, the Faroe Islands, New York, and London. As she infiltrates one of the most prestigious auction houses in the world, she uncovers a massive web of corruption, where high art and high-stakes fraud threaten more than just her client's business—this is one scam that could get her killed. Ava Lee is one of the most scintillating, unique heroines to come along in years.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An intelligent kick-ass heroine anchors Canadian author Hamilton's excellent third novel featuring forensic accountant Ava Lee (after 2012's The Disciple of Las Vegas). Uncle, her business partner for more than a decade, summons Ava, a Canadian of Chinese descent who makes her living by chasing bad debts, to Hong Kong to meet with the most powerful man in China's Hubei province, Wong Changxing. Wong has just learned that 17 Fauvist paintings he collected over the years from the French art movement are apparently fakes. Irate at having been cheated out of $80 million, Wong and his wife, May Ling, want Ava to find those responsible for the fraud and "make them pay in some other way" than financial restitution. Ava's skeptical that she can do so, but begins a globetrotting series of inquiries to try. Clearly conversant with the art world, Hamilton makes the intricacies of forgery as interesting as a Ponzi scheme.
