The In-Laws by G. X. Chen Just Out!

Spotlighting the beautiful artistry of the cover...by the author...

Ann blushed. Seth had come to the Christmas party because Betty's fiance', Peter Shi, was on call that night. A man in his late thirties, Seth had reddish-brown hair and a mildly freckled face. He was tall, athletic, and fit. Clad in a camel-hair sports jacket and a pair of dark green corduroy pants, he took Ann's hand when offered and gave it a good shake.
"Glad you could come," Ann had said conversationally because she knew Betty's brother was a doctor just like Peter. She was dressed modestly in a red sweater and a pair of blue jeans. Her black hair was cut at shoulder-length, and her eyes were smiling.
"As a psychiatrist, I can control my schedule better than Peter," Seth offered with a smile.
As if on cue, Betty had quickly excused herself and left Ann and Seth standing in the line for drinks. She had always wanted to introduce her older brother to her best friend at work, but Ann wouldn't hear it. She insisted that she would rather meet someone by choice than be fixed up by a friend. Knowing Ann would be a perfect match for Seth, who was also single, Betty had persuaded him to come to the party as soon as she knew Peter wouldn't be available.
"I've been wondering," Seth said amiably while looking at Ann with a pair of dark blue eyes, "what's the preferred method to employ when analyzing a murder case? Have you ever used the tools of psychology?"
Ann was a bit taken aback because she didn't expect Seth would know her endeavors outside the lab.
"My sister told me that you're an amateur detective," he added apologetically when he saw Ann's expression. In reality, Betty had been so taken by Ann that she had been gushing about how smart Ann was in front of her brother for quite some time.
"I'm not sure if we have a method," Ann replies honestly. "You see, my partner's a chemist, and I'm a biologist. The only thing we know and do well is gathering the evidence, which is one of the most important elements of solving a murder case."
"Of course," he concurred. "Gathering evidence and finding out the motive."
"Yes," Ann said, "But we often have a hard time finding things that can be admitted in court, even after we've figured out the motive. It's very frustrating because the outcome often hinges on the evidence. Without iron-clad evidence criminals can walk free."
...The next day, Seth called. After a few dates, Ann warmed to him, cautiously if not reluctantly at first, but his willingness to listen, his ability to hold an intelligent conversation and his easygoing manner soon won her over. It didn't hurt that he always tried to make her laugh. But when Jane asked if they had become an item, she denied it steadfastly...

~~~

The In-Laws:

Back Bay Investigations

By G. X. Chen

I've had the wonderful opportunity to read this series right from the beginning! Check out my reviews for each! An Intangible Affair, Death Comes to Lake Como, The Fatal Sin of Love and The Mystery of Moutai. But this one is the first time there was even a hint of a romantic relationship for Ann Lee,  one of the amateur investigators in Back Bay Investigations! Loved this addition of personal life for this wonderful character!

One of the reasons I enjoy the series is that, usually, there is a trip to China as part of the investigation--this time, to allow Feng Chen, Ann's partner, and his wife to take their child home for the first time, but to also talk to a major witness in the case they are working on.

I figured out the murder mystery, but must quickly say that it was primarily because of the extraordinary story the author wrote about a dysfunctional family based upon a tragic back story... The drama of this latest novel is tense and really heartbreaking since only jealousy prevented a loving family... A moral to the story that is intriguing and explicitly presented with the author capturing readers' attention and holding while she step-by-step allows her characters to act it out...

In many ways, this is a psychological suspense novel that places the closeness of the mother-son against the new person in the son's life. Interestingly, Emily, the mother encourages her son, Peter, to consider dating a specific girl, Betty, and they became involved and married... 

There are options to consider why the mother and daughter-in-law didn't get along and I enjoyed exploring whether or not the son would always support his mother... Then there is a potential love interest for Emily by a next-door neighbor who, actually, finds her after she had fallen down the stairs of her home. Only thing, though, was that a note had been found at the scene...

Ann gets involved via her best friend, Betty, who is Seth's sister... And Seth seeks Ann's investigative skills to help when Betty is arrested... Frankly, although I had figured out the murder mystery almost immediately, I still loved the clues and actual actions done by the killer that Ann discovered along the way...They are interesting and readers can use their own mystery solving skills to find those clues and fit them together...

Given the small number of characters within this mystery, Chen has played up the development of each characters so well that readers easily come to know each and sympathize with their role in the family dynamic. The setting also played a part in directing the story and, if you get involved as completely as I did, you will quickly see the minor problem areas that were caused by each family member against another. I couldn't help but compare it to family life in today's world. Many have become so entrenched in their own lives that special concern for communication with family members takes secondary importance to one's own concerns...A lesson to be learned if you happen to see yourself or other family members within this novel...

Chen's diversity in her novels is another factor why her book series is popular. While maintaining a few series characters, each book takes us on another adventurous, unique, hunt to solve a murder mystery. I'm enjoying the author's creative imagination to present fresh new scenarios...Kudos and keep them coming!

GABixlerReviews

G.X. Chen, author of the Back Bay Investigation mystery series and other novels, is a freelance writer and a graduate of Fudan University and University of New Mexico. She has taught literature at Fudan as well as the Shanghai Foreign Language Institute. A world traveler and an amateur photographer, she lives in the beautiful city of Boston with husband, Steve.

G. X. Chen Breaks Stride in Mystery Series to Solve Personal Case...

"You won't believe it, but I'm speechless," Fang Chen burst out as soon as he opened the door and saw Ann Lee, his best friend and crime-solving partner. A biologist by training, Ann had become an amateur detective a decade ago, along with Fang Chen, when their friend Shae Mei was murdered. A petite woman, barely five foot two, she was dressed simply in a white T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Her shoulder-length hair was black and frizzy, and her almond-shaped eyes were bright and animated, revealing her intelligence and inquisitiveness. She was greeted warmly by Jane, Fang Chen's wife, and their dog, Alex; Ann was Alex's dog-sitter whenever Jane and Fang Chen were traveling.
"What the matter?" Ann asked, looking up at Fang Chen curiously. A chemist and a tenured professor, Fang Chen was an old-fashioned Renaissance man, mild-tempered, bookish, quiet, and somewhat awkward. He wore his hair long, combed over to cover a bald patch on the top of his head. Even at home, he wore his signature uniform: a collared shirt and a pair of dress pants.

"Jim, one of my housemates at BU, has committed suicide," he replied in a thin and edgy voice while leading Ann into his new home, a penthouse in one of the Ritz towers in Boston, He and Jane had bought the unit as soon as they found out she was expecting. Three months before the baby was due, they had closed the deal and moved into their permanent home, a beautifully designed corner unit that had floor-to-ceiling glass walls overlooking Boston Common, the State House and the Charles River.
"He's been in such a state since I woke up this morning," Jane told Ann while rolling her eyes. Jane Tian, Ann's roommate for two years, was a cheerful young woman with a ready smile. Slim and tall, she had a straight, delicate nose and a pair of big expressive eyes on a heart-shaped face. Her chin was a bit short and weak, but her lips were full. When she smiled, her face bloomed into a spring flower, sweet and radiant. More than thirty weeks into her pregnancy, she had some difficulty as she bent down and picked up the dog, putting him on the couch.
"Because he wasn't the type," Fan Chen explained. He waited until the dog was comfortable before sitting down next to him. Alex was getting so old that he was no longer able to jump up to the couch or get down without help. "He was an accomplished scientist, clear minded and rational. It's almost impossible that he'd commit suicide." In fact, Fang Chen was so stunned that he had thought the e-mail was a joke. "It's totally out of his character."
"How do you know that he committed suicide?" Ann Asked.
"He e-mailed me before killing himself," Fang Chen said, bewildered.
Ann was surprised. "Did he tell you why he had to commit suicide?"
"No." Fang Chen shook his head, a bit hesitantly. In his farewell e-mail, Jim had revealed nothing but said he was sorry that he had to do what he had to do. Shocked and confused, Fang Chen had tried fanatically to reach him but failed. Soon, the news from California confirmed the unthinkable--Jim was dead, hung in a closet with a belt and found by one of his children. Fang Chen was notified by the youngest of the three and his godson, Tim.

~~~

An Intangible Affair:

Book Four Back Bay Investigation

See Reviews of the first three books in series:

The Mystery of Moutai, The Fatal Sin of Love, and Death Comes to Lake Como

By G. X. Chen

Or...Not...

When two amateur investigators are confronted with the suicide of a good friend of Fang Chen, Ann Lee quickly began to try to pull more information out of her partner... Somebody does not normally commit suicide without a reason, yet Fang Chen had no reason to offer, even though the friend, Jim Teng, had written an e-mail to him just before he had killed himself.

Chen has taken a step away from the more complex mysteries she has provided us in this series, to take on the death of a personal friend of Fang Chen, who had just committed suicide. Fang Chen is stunned by the news and seems unable to just put it aside...wanting to know what had happened...

He had already known, for instance, that Jim's wife Dory had died recently, but he also knew that she had cancer and her life's length had been shortened, so that when she died, Feng Chen had already begun to anticipate it and felt that Jim also would have been prepared...

Then the two amateur detectives were shocked to learn that Dory, had died from a snake bite and its deadly poison had been the cause. Since the snake was not indigenous to the locale, it soon was believed that she had been murdered... Surely Jim would not have murdered her, knowing she was soon to have died... And why would that have led to his own suicide?

There had to be something else...

But Feng Chen had known one other thing about Jim's life... and readers do, too, since the blurb and the start of the book, places us in the life of Jamie Chou. She has been Jim's lover for the last two decades...

Awakened to a mystery by the third party involvement, Feng Chen begins to share about Jim's life, while Ann Lee asks the important leading questions. Essentially, what this results in is a family drama that becomes more and more complex as we learn of Jim's early relationship with Jamie Chou. And then a later chance meeting that brought them back together...

I wondered about the title, An Intangible Affair. Was this meant to mean that the affair really didn't exist in one or the other of the couple's mind? Was Jim merely having a fling whenever he could get away from his family? Or vice-versa, was Jamie merely using Jim as a rebound after breaking up with the man she'd been living with?

Chen takes readers deep into the dynamic lives of the three people involved in a long-term marital affair, exploring what happens to the minds of the two who are actually living the pretend life... 

No matter how you might feel about the legality of the triangle, Chen has brilliantly explored the passion, the anger, the fears, and, too, the apathy that slowly creeps in as personal desires are subjugated by another individual, whether purposely or by happenstance... This move from the author from true mystery to drama may be a break from the norm or merely a diversion from the series since there is not as much mystery to the story... Nevertheless, it does show a broader scope of character development and a different perspective of characters that we haven't previously found in the mysteries series.

What it may reflect is a potential expansion of the author's future work in more literary activities and away from just one genre. If I were to comment on my own thoughts, I would say that I'd like to have seen this book as, perhaps, a new different series, since I did miss the delightful mystery component found in her previous books, while finding this more romantic tale quite compelling...

However, this book easily stands alone as an intriguing, romantic suspense, that will pull readers into the lives of the two main characters. I was caught with feelings of empathy, sympathy, and anger that communication was at the roots of what happened...Chen forces readers to wonder what they would be willing to do in what appears to be a true loving relationship... Highly recommended!

GABixlerReviews

G.X. Chen, author of the Back Bay Investigation mystery series and other novels, is a freelance writer and a graduate of Fudan University and University of New Mexico. She has taught literature at Fudan as well as the Shanghai Foreign Language Institute. A world traveler and an amateur photographer, she lives in the beautiful city of Boston with husband, Steve.