Distant Water by Bruce Gray

Published by Live Oak Book Company on January 27, 2012

Twin mysteries unfold in Distant Water, both involving missing daughters in Asia. The first story is sometimes told in the first person by Bryan Paton, an American lawyer who has just joined a Hong Kong firm that represents a prominent businessman, Li Dak-chung. As the novel opens, Dak-chung's daughter, Fiona Li, is entering China. When we last see her, she is on the brink of being abducted. When the Chinese government notifies Dak-chung that his daughter's dead body has been recovered, Paton is dispatched to China to identify the body and to arrange for its return to Hong Kong. The reader soon begins to wonder whether the body is, in fact, Fiona's.

The second mystery, which dominates the second half of the story, gives the novel the flavor of a political thriller. It revolves around General Zhu Fangguo, whose daughter is also missing. Zhu supports the moderate political faction in its struggle for power after Chairman Mao's death -- a position that puts Zhu squarely at odds with Mao's far-from-moderate widow. Zhu is both the instigator and the victim of political intrigue. Zhu hopes to use the recent death of Chairman Mao as "the cover for exacting cold revenge," although the meaning of that phrase does not become clear until late in the novel.

For that matter, it's unclear how the stories of the two missing daughters are related until late in the novel, although the connection isn't difficult to guess. The plot is nonetheless clever. Distant Water easily held my interest from the first page to the last, in part because the cast of characters is so diverse. From British diplomats to Chinese civil servants, Bruce Gray gives each character a unique personality. I can't say that I became emotionally attached to any of the characters, but I enjoyed reading about them.

In addition to the power vacuum that follows Mao's death, the novel delves into the political situations in Taiwan (where Dak-chung's sister is a powerful and ruthless figure) and in Hong Kong, while offering a history lesson that begins with the Treaty of Versailles and the May 4th Movement. Readers who don't know much about the twentieth century history of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong may need to breeze through a Wikipedia article or two, as I did, to get a better handle on the story. The struggle of a faction that included Mao's wife for leadership of the government, popularly characterized as "the Gang of Four," as well as the complex relationship between China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong are all integral to the novel.

Gray paints a convincing picture of the authoritarian regime that has Paton (and other characters) in its clutches. Gray builds tension as the characters wonder who to trust in a treacherous environment. On occasion Gray indulges in unnecessary lectures about the evils of communist dictatorships, exposition that has less impact than his descriptions of the unease (at best) and terror (at worst) his characters experience at the hands of authoritarian thugs.

Putting aside the improbability that a young man with zero legal experience would be given such a high profile position in a law firm, Distant Water tells a believable story, at least as compared to most modern thrillers. One aspect of the ending is a bit of a stretch, but the "surprise" is well integrated into the cohesive plot. Despite my emotional detachment from the story, I found it fascinating and I do not hesitate to recommend it to thriller fans.

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