THE SAN FRANCISCO NOIR SERIES: Take one smart, funny ex-detective. Add one beautiful, deadly Chinese assassin. Pour into San Francisco and shake violently.

STEALING THE DRAGON: When a container ship filled with illegal Chinese immigrants runs aground on Alcatraz Island, the crew slaughtered like cattle, private investigator Cape Weathers has to find out what happened. His motives aren't mercenary, but personal. He's afraid that his friend Sally Mei, a woman with a shadowy past, might have been the killer.

Weathers' investigation takes him into Chinatown where he runs up against the Triads, a local leader with his eyes on the mayors' office and an exiled mob boss improbably named One-Eyed Dong. The colorful characters are just part of the fun in this fast-paced story. Even better are the flashbacks to Sally's life growing up in a Hong Kong school for assassins.