Word: chinatown
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...noon in New York 600 policemen in riot gear, on horseback, in helicopters and on rooftops milled above and about Chinatown. State Department officials and representatives from China's liaison office joined other Chinese, Americans and Chinese-Americans in staging a ceremony honoring normalization. Meanwhile, supporters of Taiwan stood nearby clutching furled and unfurled Taiwanese flags as they waited their turn to demonstrate later in the afternoon. At that moment things were peaceful, though confused...
...white and blue Nationalist flags adorned many buildings in Chinatown. Only one edifice sported the red and yellow People's Republic flag. Discounting the police, the streets and sidewalks played host to a smaller crowd than usual, while the normal bustle was muted. Most of the people out on the streets were of Chinese descent. They tended to stop and stand fairly often--to watch the police and one another...
Restaurants and shops seemed unusually empty and unusually loud. We were the only customers in Hong Wah, a seven-table restaurant on Mott Street, Chinatown's main thoroughfare. Outside there were more policemen than civilians; inside, the proprietor, waiters and friends were talking excitedly, presumably about events in the streets, though when questioned our waiter seemed non-committal as to what might occur that afternoon...
Drugs and thugs, a missing person and a backchatting investigator also dominate Cocaine and Blue Eyes. Fred Zackel's sprightly first novel, set mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area, combines the story of a Pacific Heights dynasty, corporate shenanigans, Chinatown gangs, a spectrum of sex, aging flower children, Mafia money and the houseboat life in Sausalito. The result is as nerve-rattling as a full-throttle auto chase from Grant Avenue to Fisherman's Wharf...
...dead, the down-at-heels p.i. takes on the posthumous assignment. Dani, it develops, belongs to a wealthy Faulknerian family held together by booze, barbiturates, bitterness, incest and greed. Brennen finally finds the girl (also mysteriously dead) and discovers that the family business is being run by a homosexual Chinatown lawyer and his epicene "nephew." The nephew is quietly siphoning off cash to finance a cocaine-smuggling operation, and the tale moves to a bewildering but believable showdown. His publisher reports that Sausalito-based Zackel is working on a second novel, which on the evidence should be as welcome...