Second Sister

Chan Ho-Kei's new Hong Kong-based psychological thriller, Second Sister, incorporates an intricate mix of internet hacking and social engineering to propel its narrative. I was reminded at times of the indie novel Social Engineer by Ian Sutherland, although Second Sister is definitely more ambitious in its scope. I appreciated however that Chan always stays in the realms of the plausible. Of course I can't actually say for sure that everything N accomplishes is as easy or quick as it is made to appear - for those in the know anyway - but I never found myself scoffing in disbelief at some outlandish scenario or against-the-clock race. These aspects are what generally put me off reading thrillers so I was pleased not to encounter such overused tropes here. Instead Chan focuses on the humanity and motivations of his characters. No one, to my mind, is particularly likeable, but everyone has such a strong ring of authenticity to their portrayal that I found myself really caring about how their stories would ultimately interlink and unfold.

The densely populated high rise city of Hong Kong makes a perfect backdrop for this stort. Through Nga-Yee's search we see the everyday callousness of many of its residents and their incessant striving for increased wealth and status while, alongside them, an underclass has to work multiple jobs just to stay financially afloat. Hong Kong's contradictions reflect the characters in a way that I felt added great depth to Second Sister and the varied environments helped me to keep individual story threads from tangling up before they were meant to! There's a lot going on throughout Second Sister which made this feel like a fast-paced novel although there isn't actually a lot in the way of traditional thriller action. Indeed many of scenes are simply one or two characters watching another character. However Chan maintains a genuinely tense atmosphere and I was often just as much in the dark as Nga-Yee. I liked seeing how her working relationship with N developed - and that it doesn't devolve into a dreary romantic liason! - although perhaps Nga-Yee's technological ignorance was overstated in the early chapters. There was a little too much moralising at the end for my tastes too. Overall though, I found Second Sister to be a compelling and insightful psychological thriller and I am now keen to get myself a copy of Chan Ho-Kei's acclaimed earlier novel, The Borrowed.