RENTED GRAVE
by Charles Philipp Martin
February 3 – 28, 2025 Virtual Book Tour
Synopsis:
AN INSPECTOR LOK NOVEL
Horace Yang, a downtrodden office worker haunted by failure, betrayal, and brutal imprisonment during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, has finally found a way to settle the score. Obsessed with revenge, he presses on to a confrontation that can only end in death.
In Hong Kong’s teeming Yau Ma Tei district, a body is found in a gangster’s limousine. The murder case takes Inspector Lok and his team deep into the heart of the city’s criminal life. Eventually Lok’s investigation uncovers an evil spawned in the turmoil of 1960s China, where a vicious regime exploited fear and terrorized the masses.
Rented Grave is a crime story about Hong Kong, a modern city entangled in China’s past. Some can’t forget that past, for their wounds still bleed, and their voices still cry out for revenge.
Praise for Rented Grave:
“An atmospheric crime story savvily blending the sleek modernity of Hong Kong with China’s tumultuous past.”
~ Kirkus Reviews
“In noir, nothing goes according to plan. Charles Philip Martin’s RENTED GRAVE we have a crime, done in a different culture, against an alien political backdrop. Everything is different to Western eyes, from corruption to police procedure, women, and justice. Told in a crisp, vivid and relentless style that keeps the story moving forward and the mindset and values of a foreign city and its people at the fingertips, yet out of reach, Martin delivers noir in the darkest of shades.”
~ Gabriel Valjan, Agatha, Anthony, and Shamus-nominated author of the Shane Cleary series
“…lean and masterfully written…This book pulls you in and won’t let go.”
~ Carl Vonderau, award-winning author of MURDERABILIA and SAVING MYLES
“Rented Grave is a beautifully-crafted, relentlessly-paced crime story studded with edge-of-your-seat thrills. Never for a moment does it stop bubbling with tension and danger.”
~ Ron McMillan, author of YIN YANG TATTOO and BANGKOK COWBOY
“An as-authentic-as-you’re-likely-to-get insider’s view of Hong Kong police work…Martin pulls the reader through a twisty international thriller that ultimately satisfies while leaving us ready for the next installment. Exactly what you want in a thriller.”
~ Bobby Mathews, Anthony-nominated author of MAGIC CITY BLUES, LIVING THE GIMMICK, and NEGATIVE TILT
“The criminal back alleys of Charles Philipp Martin’s Hong Kong simmer with sumptuous corruption.”
~ Gerald Elias, award-winning author of the Daniel Jacobus mysteries
Inside the Author of Rented Grave:
I’m so excited to share that Charles Philipp Martin, author of Rented Grave visited with me recently. Here are some highlights from our conversation.
What inspired you to write your first book?
I’ve always loved writing; I was that strange kid who actually liked cooking up essays at school. As a teenager I produced some rather derivative science fiction stories. But a novel was, for me, daunting. When I became a bass player in a Hong Kong orchestra, I realized that the city was a stupendous setting for a novel, and I began writing a story about, of all things, a bass player in a Hong Kong orchestra. But I was too close to the subject, and to be frank, wrapped up in my own demons. I couldn’t exorcise those demons and learn novel structure at the same time. So I decided to write my second book first.
The idea was to keep everything under control: use a setting I wasn’t too familiar with or attached to (Seattle), have the hero work in a field that I couldn’t relate to (accounting), and have the crime deal with things I knew little about (computer crime). That way I could learn the basics without too much emotional involvement — the way a musician plays scales to improve technique. Research rather than visceral attachment.
Well, I ended up falling in love with my hero and getting absorbed in the story. I even moved to Seattle. The novel didn’t get published, but it gave me the confidence I needed to write Neon Panic. And once I’d created Inspector Lok, Rented Grave seemed the inevitable next step.
If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?
I’m pretty happy with Rented Grave. Fortunately, I had a lot of time to go back and change things, refine the prose (I’m an inveterate groomer, always finding nits to pick in my own writing). So I think it’s the book that my readers are meant to read. My earlier book, Neon Panic, is a different story. While I loved writing it, and readers tell me they enjoy it, I probably chucked in a few too many stories. If I had to do Neon Panic over again, I’d slice out one particular story and make it the climax of its own book. But that’s the way it goes. When you write your first book, you’re sometimes worried that it’s the last thing you’ll ever do, and so it better contain everything that you can think of. Now I know better; I’ve got more books in me than I can ever write, and more material for them than I need, provided I’m disciplined enough to keep banging my head against the wall (my term for the writing process).
That said, I was changing things and picking out nits until the final edit of Rented Grave, so who knows how I’ll answer this question next year?
Who has impacted your life the most and in what way?
No waffling on this one: I’m uniquely lucky in having married the Best Person In The World, and fathering the runner-up to that title. Some people are capable of doing what they need to do on their own, but my wife Catherine is my life support, role model, respected consigliere, and the cosmic glue that keeps my universe from falling apart.
The most important thing she ever did was never, ever doubt me. She never said I should think about quitting writing, or just write as a hobby while getting a real estate certification.
Every writer knows E.L. Doctorow’s comparison of writing a novel to driving a car at night. “You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Even if I had been able to make the trip without sharing the journey with Cathy, it wouldn’t have been much fun.
What event in your life do you remember first when asked for a humorous story?
What could be more humorous than almost dying? When I was very young — three or so — my family spent the summer at Lake Skaneateles in upstate New York. The public entrance to the lake was a park with a kind of concrete slip that led into the water. One bright morning my mother and some friends sat on the grass while my father took me out into the gorgeous lake, walking down the sloping concrete path into the water.
What Dad forgot about was the dropoff – am underwater step that dropped about six inches. Stepping down raised the water level from my father’s thigh to maybe his navel. Unfortunately, it raised the water level from my neck to just over my head.
We continued walking, my dad taking in the scenery, and me not exactly sure why I was surrounded by a blue blur. It was, after all, my first drowning. Back on land, I later learned, my mother saw me disappear and gestured frantically to Dad, screaming and pointing to where I had been, and trying to make him understand. My dear, loving, oblivious Dad waved back at her, figuring Mom was just being friendly. Eventually he looked down, saw that Lake Skaneateles had claimed his son, and rescued me.
Hard to say what the lesson is here: beware of obliviousness? As an adult I went swimming there again, and a local kid warned, “Watch out for the dropoff.” I told him, “Thanks, but you’re a bit late.”
Oh my goodness!! So horrific and hilarious at the same time. Plus, I can’t wait to check in later to see if you still love Rented Grave as much as you do today… I know readers will!
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: August 13, 2024
Number of Pages: 270
ISBN: 9781685126780 (ISBN10: 1685126782)
Series: An Inspector Lok Novel, 1
Book Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | Level Best Books
Read an excerpt:
Chapter 1
Rented Grave
Yau Ma Tei District, Hong Kong, Friday, 7:31 p.m. It was not supposed to be like this.
Again the words come back to Horace Yang, persistent as the cat he kicks in the alley by his home, that wretched bag of fur that returns nightly to beg for what Horace doesn’t have.
The words come back, like the blotch on his toe, a mustard-colored rot that vanishes with a touch of rice vinegar, only to bloom again when it dries.
He banishes the words from his mind, but they return.
It was not supposed to be like this.
They return when he awakens in his flat, which seems to shrink by the year, and again when he takes the day’s work orders and prepares for the day’s disappointments.
It was not supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be different.
The words remain after other words are forgotten. They remain after he answers a question from his son, a boy without guile and without future. At night they keep him company in bed, while he counts the ways that life has thwarted him. And now they return in full voice as he clutches a knife bought in haste to kill a man.
There should have been time to plan, time to choose the weapon and the place, perhaps even a minute to tell Mo what he thought of him first. That would have felt good, might have eased the stress. That was how it was supposed to be.
But for Horace, things are never as they’re supposed to be.
It should be dark, but darkness, like silence, doesn’t happen in Mongkok. A faint glow washes in from lamps on Temple Street. Filthy and forgotten windows at the back of the restaurant shed their anemic light on crates full of rotting choi sum.
Horace approaches the dormant limousine, adding a few inches to his stride to speed things up.
Given more time, he could have taken control, and not had to sneak around. Why is it that people like him, who have the best minds and the keenest ambition, are the ones who can never get control?
One last look around. Except for Horace, the alley is empty. No one is passing on Temple Street behind him or on Woosung Street at the far end. If it’s to happen, it must happen now.
Horace grabs the handle and throws the door wide open to reveal a small figure in the glint of the dome light.
“Who…?” The man stares up in confusion.
He drives the knife into the man’s chest. They both gasp.
Up to this moment, Horace has thought only of himself: his own need for cover, for speed, for getting the thing done and getting away. And, of course, his resentment at how things have turned out.
Now, the deed done, he pauses to look at the man.
The wrong man. Not Mo Tun.
A stranger lies on the seat, eyes rigid in horror and pain. And then Horace sees what he hasn’t allowed himself to see till now.
Next to the dead man, another pair of eyes.
***
Excerpt from Rented Grave by Charles Martin. Copyright 2025 by Charles Martin. Reproduced with permission from Charles Martin. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Charles Philipp Martin grew up in New York City’s Greenwich Village. His father was an opera conductor and both his parents well-known opera translators and librettists who never uttered the word “parenting” but knew enough to steep their family in music and literature. After attending Columbia University and Manhattan School of Music, Martin took off for a six-year paid vacation in the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
While in Hong Kong he hung up his bow and turned to writing, spending four years as a Sunday Magazine columnist for the South China Morning Post, and writing for magazines all over Southeast Asia. His weekly jazz radio show 3 O’Clock Jump was heard every Saturday on Hong Kong’s Radio 3 for some two decades.
Neon Panic, a suspense novel which introduced Hong Kong policeman Inspector Herman Lok, was published in 2011. His most recent novel is Rented Grave, the first in a new series featuring Inspector Herman Lok. Martin now lives in Seattle with his wife Catherine.
Catch Up With Charles Philipp Martin:
www.NeonPanic.com
Amazon Author Profile
Goodreads – @cpmartin
Instagram – @writecharliewrite
Bluesky – @neonpanic.bsky.social
Facebook – @HongKongSuspense
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Great interview! It’s great that your wife has encouraged you so much. <3 <3