Title: The Night Tiger
Author: Yangsze Choo
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Plot: Ji Lin is helping her mother pay off her mother’s mahjong debts in British colony Malaya (now Malaysia). She has an apprenticeship with a dressmaker and works part time at a dance hall. One of her dance partners drops something after a dance. A finger. Ji Lin’s not sure what to do. She asks her step brother, Shin, about it. He thinks it belongs to the local hospital he works at. There she meets Ren, who’s searching for the same finger which belongs to his former master. Ren must reunite the finger with is former master’s body or his master’s spirit will wander the earth as a weretiger according to local lore. With a tiger in the area, is the local legend true? Or is it a real tiger? Or something else?
Rating: 4.0 – a surprisingly good mystery and historical fiction book
Opinion: This was a good book. I enjoyed learning about Malaysian history and culture. The book gave good insight into the daily lives and beliefs of Malaysian people and what outsiders thought of them. It was interesting to learn how the local people thought of the British and Chinese who came to Malaysia. I enjoyed the air of mystery woven into the book. The author does a really good job with this. She a good job throwing suspicion on the right people, and animals. It gave good reasons why the locals, or anyone, could believe in the local legends. This was a steady read and kept my interest throughout the book. It did a good job building up to the ending. There was one thing that bugged me about the book. There was so much description in certain parts that it was easy to miss little things. This is a great book for anyone who loves historical fiction and wants to learn more about another culture.
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