BAD TRAFFIC is a thriller featuring Chinese police inspector Jian. Jian is a cynical and tough cop who has come to England to find his daughter, Mei, who has disappeared after making an alarming phone call asking for his help. Jian soon discovers that he knew his daughter rather less well than he had assumed; Mei had been lying to him for several months as she had very quickly given up her college course to work in a Chinese restaurant. As Jian cannot speak any English he has to coerce first Mei's former housemate, and then an illegal immigrant, Ding Yi, to assist him in his search, following the trail from the restaurant where she was working, which leads to the ruthless Anglo-Chinese gangster Black Fort. Jian takes an unwilling Ding Yi on a road trip from hell to rural Norfolk to track down Black Fort.

BAD TRAFFIC is a compelling and page-turning thriller. The main characters are convincingly drawn, and Simon Lewis vividly depicts the cultural and language barriers that Jian and Ding Yi experience. I look forward to further books in the Inspector Jian series.