Hubris

Hubris, P.A. Wilson, (self-published), 2010

Charity Deacon is a private investigator and occasional free-lance journalist in present-day Vancouver. One night, she witnesses a motor vehicle accident downtown (with a fatality). Amid all the hubbub of police, ambulance personnel, and gawkers wanting to record it all on their smartphones, Charity sees two Asian men standing off to the side. It's almost as if they are making sure that the accident went off without a hitch.

Charity asks her friends about them, and learns that they are part of the Chinese mafia. They are the sort of people who have no problem with killing anyone who gets too close. Even Hell's Angels are nervous and apprehensive around them.

Meantime, Charity is approached by Val, a teenage prostitute who hires to help find Val's sister, Emma, another prostitute, who has been missing for the past couple of days. Inquiries among the local prostitutes yield nothing. From one minute to the next, Val shows herself as a scared teenage girl whose parents are dead (murdered by the same Chinese mafia), or as a tough, streetwise veteran with enough attitude for ten people.

Charity's inquiries about the two Asian men get her a trip to the hospital, beaten up by one of them. It also gets her houseboat ransacked. Released from the hospital, but hardly recovered from the beating, Charity gets word of a shipment of trafficked Chinese women coming to a local warehouse. With Val outside as lookout, Charity hides herself inside the warehouse, looking for enough evidence to put the Asian men away for a long time. Does Charity succeed? Is Emma found?

This would make a really good movie. It has plenty of dirt, grime and action. This story is also very well done and easy to read.