NO GOOD TO CRY is the third installment of a very ambitious and well-written series about a community that exists nearly unnoticed in plain view. While these books are set in Hartford, Connecticut, the Vietnamese expatriate community that forms the bedrock of the the plots exists in many cities, particularly along the Gulf Coast. PI Rick Van Lam is what is known as bui doi (a “child of dust”), a term given to the mixed race offspring of native Vietnamese and American servicemen, children who were left behind at the close of the Vietnam War. Rick moves between the American and Vietnamese cultures --- sometimes easily, sometimes otherwise --- creating a baked-in, subtle tension for each volume of the series, which promises much and delivers more.

"Andrew Lanh is a terrific storyteller. His prose style eschews multiple bells and whistles, but his plots are straightforward, his mysteries plausible, and...he makes you care about things and events that may have been off your radar."

This latest addition can be read and enjoyed without knowledge of what has gone before, though reading it will encourage those unfamiliar with the series to go back and see what they’ve missed. NO GOOD TO CRY begins with a bit of a flashback to Rick’s tumultuous childhood in a Vietnamese orphanage, where he was picked on and abused by everyone from the next lowest of the lowly orphans to the nuns who run the facility. This situation changed when another dust boy --- the child of a black GI --- comes to stay at the orphanage and is even more reviled than Rick, who, alas, takes advantage of his new status to pick on him as well.

Flash forward to present-day Hartford. Rick is distressed to learn that his mentor, Jimmy, has been injured in what is officially thought to be a random street mugging. As Rick digs into things, however, it appears that the attackers were targeting Ralph, a somewhat shady associate of Jimmy’s who was with him at the time of the attack. Ralph was killed, and Jimmy, though alive, has been hospitalized. Two boys --- Simon “Saigon” Tran and Frankie Croix --- are arrested for the attack and subsequent murder. Rick is approached to clear them, an assignment that he very reluctantly accepts. He learns that Simon comes from a good family, with an upright father and mother who, despite difficult childhoods and prejudices, have come to the United States and been successful.

The shock for Rick comes when he learns that Simon’s father is the same dust boy who took his place as the low man in the orphanage all those years ago. Despite the success and example of his parents and older siblings, Simon has turned to a life of crime and already has acquired a reputation as a criminal at a relatively young age. Rick may be his, and Frankie’s, last best chance at a life turnaround. He also feels some debt of honor to Simon because of what happened in the orphanage. But will Rick be able to make a difference? And can he ultimately establish the boys’ innocence?

Andrew Lanh is a terrific storyteller. His prose style eschews multiple bells and whistles, but his plots are straightforward, his mysteries plausible, and --- perhaps most importantly --- he makes you care about things and events that may have been off your radar. This is an author and a series to watch and read carefully.