Tim Maleeny’s latest Cape Weathers mystery takes readers to San Francisco’s Chinatown, into the world of art, and to China itself. Best of all, though, Hanging the Devil takes readers on a fast-paced adventure.

Eleven-year-old Grace wasn’t really supposed to be at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco at night, but her uncle had no other options yet. She had arrived from Hong Kong a week earlier, not knowing if her parents were killed or arrested in a protest in Victoria Park. Her father sent her to her uncle, a security guard at the museum. When a helicopter crashes into the skylight of the museum, Grace watches her uncle die. Two men and a ghostly figure steal a statue, but the ghost sees Grace.

Grace flees to Chinatown where she’s found by Sally Mei. Sally is hunting a man who was drugging women in Chinatown, but her mission is to protect Chinatown. That also means she rescues Grace, who reveals her story of the museum and the ghost. Sally is a business partner with reporter turned PI Cape Weathers. After she calls him, he shows up at the museum just as a representative from Interpol’s Cultural Heritage Crime Division shows up. Cape and Maria size up each other, and realize they might be able to work together. They’ll need to work together if they want to prevent another art heist.

Hanging the Devil is a relentless, non-stop story featuring an art heist, art forgery made into manufacturing, China’s politics, the Triads and San Francisco’s tongs, along with the deteriorating city with its politics. But, it also has two investigators teaming up to protect a young witness, their client. There’s violence and action, along with a great deal of dry humor.

Here’s my favorite line from the book. Cape talks with a police officer responsible for the investigation at the museum, and asks if he has a plan. “I’m a cop. We don’t make plans. We just wait for horrible shit to happen, then we arrest somebody.”

There’s a lot of “horrible shit” that happens in Maleeny’s captivating Hanging the Devil.

Tim Maleeny’s website is https://timmaleeny.com/

Hanging the Devil by Tim Maleeny. Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, 2023. ISBN 9781728279169 (paperback), 416p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley through NetGalley to review for a journal.