Chinaman's Chance

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, Jan 15, 2002 - Fiction - 384 pages
""It was while jogging along the beach just east of the Paradise Cove pier that Artie Wu tripped over a dead pelican, fell, and met the man with six greyhounds."""- "from "Chinaman's Chance" Thus begins what may be the most popular of Ross Thomas's unique stories. The combination of Wu, pretender to the Imperial throne of China, and Quincy Durant, who has his own colorful past, makes for a heady experience. After starting with the deceased pelican on a California beach, the plot mixes in the disappearance of a large sum of money that should have been buried in Vietnam, and the search for the missing member of a trio of singing sisters from the Ozarks. Only Thomas could have stirred this concoction with the style, humor, and suspense that captures the reader at the very beginning and doesn't let go until the last word.
 

Contents

Section 1
9
Section 2
22
Section 3
31
Section 4
46
Section 5
65
Section 6
74
Section 7
85
Section 8
95
Section 20
224
Section 21
231
Section 22
239
Section 23
249
Section 24
261
Section 25
271
Section 26
281
Section 27
288

Section 9
107
Section 10
121
Section 11
133
Section 12
143
Section 13
151
Section 14
161
Section 15
172
Section 16
185
Section 17
196
Section 18
205
Section 19
214
Section 28
311
Section 29
321
Section 30
328
Section 31
338
Section 32
348
Section 33
356
Section 34
363
Section 35
371
Section 36
379
Section 37
380
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Writer Ross Thomas was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on February 19, 1926. During World War II, he served in the Philippines. Before becoming a writer in 1965, he worked as a pulic relations specialist and a reporter. He has written over twenty novels, including The Cold War Swap, which won the 1967 Edgar Award for best first novel, and Briarpatch, which won the 1985 Edgar Award for best novel. He also wrote a series of novels under the pseudonym Oliver Bleeck. Besides writing novels, he worked on the following three screenplays: St. Ives, which was based on a character he created, Hammett, and Bad Company. He died in Santa Monica, California on December 18, 1995.

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