The Last Mandarin by Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung
Bestselling author Louise Penny joins forces with Mellissa Fung, a documentary producer and non-fiction writer, to pen The Last Mandarin, a political thriller centered on contemporary American and Chinese politics. Columbia University School of Journalism graduate and food blogger, Alice Li, and her world respected Chinese mother Vivien are meeting for lunch in Washington, DC, when sirens sound off worldwide. Every type of alarm — home security, cars and phones — incites mayhem, which turns out to be the beginning of worldwide panic.
Vivien and Alice are whisked off to the White House, where a college friend of Alice’s, Liam Palmer, appears to be at the center of the turmoil. While Alice had believed that a recent text containing a photo of Liam from Hong Kong signaled his romantic interest in her, it appears that his intentions were more politically motivated, especially when she learns Liam is dead. The White House suggests he was a spy, but they are unsure who was he spying for. Was it the Americans or the Chinese? What had Liam discovered that caused his death? Was his death an accident or was he murdered? If so by whom? Is there a connection between Liam and sirens?
Global Intrigue and Political Chaos
All nations are claiming deniability, except the Chinese, who remain silent. And the U.S. president, along with his international counterparts, is stymied. Who is responsible for the sirens? Are more important utility systems set to be hacked and when? How can they stop the perpetrators?
Alice is in shock; she knew Liam to be a rice salesman from the Midwest. And like the sirens, his demise is the first of many secrets she discovers on the way to solving the mystery behind Liam’s untimely death. And, interestingly, her mother seems to know more than she is revealing about Liam, and the sirens.
Against the backdrop of the political upheaval initiated by the alarms, and with international events ramping up to DEFCON 1, the heart of the novel focuses on the mother-daughter relationship. It is the story of two women, related yet strangers, swept up in dramatic world events but with the common goal of solving the mystery of Liam’s death and its impact on the world.
Family Secrets and Generational Conflict
Throughout Alice’s life, Vivien had remained aloof and secretive about her marriage to Alice’s father and her career, even barring her children from entering her home office. Escapees from China after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, Vivien and her ex-husband Liu, established a new life in America with their children Alice and Kevin. Soon after their divorce, Liu, a professor, was killed in an automobile accident, and Alice idolized him. Meanwhile, Madame Li rose to power with her political connections in China, while proving to be a reliable source of information to the U.S. government.
Alice believed that her mother, a fighter for human rights in China, viewed her as a disappointment. Alice’s assumptions were correct, and throughout the novel the two women struggle to understand each other, creating a tension between the older and younger generation of Chinese women. Vivienne believes that the idealistic culture of the pre-Mao China should be restored, while Alice is American to the core, rejecting the tradition. Combined with Vivien’s secrecy, they were unable to bridge the emotional and philosophical chasms between them. However, as they are drawn deeper into the global espionage, they must learn to trust and understand each other to survive.
When readers see the name Louise Penny on a novel, they expect a certain masterful style of writing and storytelling. This novel appears to be more Fung than Penny, and while entertaining, it lacks the depth of character and plotting of a Three Pines-Gamache mystery, or even The State of Terror, which Penny co-wrote with Hillary Rodham Clinton. But for Penny fans, they can eagerly devour this novel filled with Chinese history, lore and family loyalty until the next Gamache arrives in the fall.
About Louise Penny:
Louise Penny is the multi-award winning author of the Chief Inspector Gamache novels, set in her home province of Québec, Canada. Her books, including State of Terror written with Hillary Rodham Clinton, have sold more than 18 million copies worldwide, topped international bestseller lists, including the New York Times, and been translated into 32 languages. The recipient of both the Order of Canada and l’Ordre national du Québec, her country’s highest civilian honours, her Three Pines Foundation reaches out to those in crisis and offers financial and emotional support, with a special focus on literacy as well as dementia care. Her husband, Michael, died of dementia in 2016. She lives with her Golden Retrievers Muggins and Charlie in a village south of Montréal.
About Mellissa Fung:
Mellissa Fung is a veteran journalist, author, and award-winning filmmaker. She has produced original award-winning documentaries for Al-Jazeera International, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and TV Ontario, among others. She covered the war in Afghanistan, leading to her best-selling first book, Under an Afghan Sky, which chronicled her experience as a hostage after she was kidnapped while on assignment in Kabul in 2008. Since then, Fung has focused on human rights reporting, with a focus on women and children in conflict. She is a frequent contributor to The Globe and Mail, and her work has also appeared in The Huffington Post, The Toronto Star, and on PBS. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York. She was appointed as an officer to the Order of Canada in 2024 for her work with women in conflict. She lives in Toronto with her husband Paul and her scruffy rescue dog, Sammy.
