According to THR, Karen Walton has been hired to shape Ian Hamilton‘s Ava Lee crime novel series for the big screen. Dubbed “the next The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” The Water Rat of Wanchai is the first novel in a series that could ultimately become a franchise.
Wanchai, also Hamilton‘s debut novel, follows a “fictional Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant character who uses unorthodox methods to recover multi-million debts for her clients.” I do see the connection to Dragon Tattoo, though I’m not too convinced this project will hold out as well. But you never know.
Here’s the official, lengthy synopsis for the book courtesy of Amazon:
Ava Lee is a young Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant who specializes in recovering massive debts. Ava works for an elderly Hong Kong–based “Uncle,” who may or may not have ties to the Triads. At 5’3″ and 115 lbs., she hardly seems a threat. But her razor-sharp intelligence and unorthodox rules of engagement allow her to succeed where traditional methods have failed. In The Water Rat of Wanchai Ava is persuaded by an old friend of Uncle’s to help his nephew who is owed $5 million from a seafood company. The nephew’s Hong Kong business financed purchase orders for a company that was producing cooked shrimp for a major U.S. retailer. The deal went sideways. The money disappeared. On a journey that takes her from Toronto to Seattle to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Guyana, and the British Virgin Islands, Ava encounters everything from the Thai katoey culture to corrupt but helpful law enforcers. But it’s in Guyana where she meets her match: Captain Robbins, a huge hulk of a man and godfather-like figure who controls the police, politicians, and criminals alike. In exchange for his help, he decides he wants of piece of Ava’s $5 million action and will do whatever it takes to get his fair share. In the first of what promises to be a massively successful series, Ian Hamilton introduces the reader to one of crime fiction’s most unique and compelling heroines, and uncovers the dark machinations of the global shadow economy.
Wanchai was published just last February, with the sophomore novel, The Disciple of Las Vegas, following closely behind in June. The next two, The Wild Beasts of Wuhan and The Red Pole of Macau, will be released this month and in the fall, respectively.
Have you read the novel? If familiar, are you interested in seeing it make its way to the big screen?