Skeleton Women


Fiction - Cultural
368 Pages
Reviewed on 05/13/2012
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Karen Pirnot for Readers' Favorite

Mingmei Yip's latest novel "Skeleton Women" is a fascinating and provocative story about an orphan girl named Camilla who was raised to be a performer and companion to a most notorious Chinese organized crime leader named Lung. She is programmed by the leader's rival Big Brother Wang. Camilla is musically talented and coached by a famous voice coach who appears to play many roles in Camilla's life. Camilla herself plays the roles of night club performer, mistress and spy as she attempts to learn the secrets to Lung's success which has brought him untold wealth and power. In the meantime, Camilla learns of a potential rival in the form of magician Shadow who threatens to undermine Camilla's attempts to please her benefactor Big Brother Wang. She fears that if she is not successful in her role as spy, she will be killed by her benefactor.

Yip is a master of developing characters from the early part of 20th century China. She delineates the roles of men and women as well as those of the privileged and the underprivileged. She skillfully takes the reader through the trivial and the mundane as she builds suspense toward the important issues of survival and personal motivation. This story has everything for the reader of culture and suspense. There is love interest and there are personal trials and tribulations. There is the issue of duty, honor and trust within a culture in which nothing is truly as it appears. The reader is treated to humor and heart-wrenching decisions which are made not of choice but of necessity. "Skeleton Women" will tease your sense of a just world as it stretches the tender muscles of your heartstrings.