The fourth and final installment in Ian Hamilton's exhilarating Ava Lee spin-off series The Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung.
Following a diagnosis of terminal cancer, Uncle begins preparing for his inevitable death. As he sets his affairs in order, he recalls the moments in his life that meant the most to him — including his first encounter with the talented forensic accountant Ava Lee and the origins of their life-changing partnership.
May 16, 2022
Set in 2015, Hamilton’s bittersweet fourth and final outing for Uncle Chow Tung (after 2021’s Fortune) opens with Uncle, the former leader of Hong Kong’s Fanling Triad, learning that he has inoperable stomach cancer. Despite this grim diagnosis, Uncle and his partner, forensic accountant Ava Lee, investigate a scam involving a Vietnamese businessman, a Canadian bank, and the disappearance of around $30 million of investors’ money. When Uncle and Ava uncover an elaborate scheme to launder Italian mafia money, he realizes this will be of interest to the Hong Kong police. The exciting resolution to this case leaves several dead. Meanwhile, as Uncle undergoes chemotherapy, he often dreams about his fiancée, Lin Gui-San, who drowned when the two fled Mainland China in 1959 by swimming across Shenzhen Bay to Hong Kong. Uncle also continues to engage in his passion for gambling on horse races and makes a last trip to Shanghai to pursue a distribution deal. At the poignant conclusion, after a stroke in the hospital, Uncle has a vision of his old, deceased friends and his beloved Gui-San. Series fans will be sorry to see the last of Uncle.