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Title details for The Golden Gate by Amy Chua - Wait list

The Golden Gate

A Novel

by Amy Chua
Robb Moreira
Audiobook
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"Moreira displays his many years of dramatic training and extensive theatrical experience as he animates characters as diverse as low-life thugs, the upper-class Bainbridge women, and even Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Tim Campbell and Suzanne Toren ably narrate the court deposition sequences. This audiobook is part hard-boiled detective story, part family saga, and wholly good listening!"- AudioFile

Amy Chua's debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change.
In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan's investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still.
The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris's sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth—not the powerful influence of Bainbridges' grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley's district attorney, or the interest of China's First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings—Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion.
Chua's riveting debut brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when race and class defined the very essence of power, sex, and justice, and introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, a mixed race former Army officer who is still reckoning with his own history.
A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    September 19, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781250291578
      • File size: 383991 KB
      • Duration: 13:19:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 3, 2023
      The thrilling fiction debut from Yale law professor Chua (World on Fire) anchors a mind-bending murder mystery in the social turbulence of 1944 Berkeley, Calif. A report of gunfire brings police detective Al Sullivan to room 604 of the luxurious Claremont hotel. Inside, he finds William Wilkinson, a rich industrialist with political aspirations, unharmed. Everything—save the bullet hole in the wall—seems perfectly normal. When a hotel employee tells Wilkinson, “We thought you’d been murdered,” he enigmatically replies, “I have been.” A few hours later, Wilkinson is, indeed, found dead, and Sullivan launches an official investigation. Early evidence points to the three beautiful granddaughters of wealthy socialite Genevieve Hopkins Bainbridge, whose youngest sister, Iris, happened to be murdered in the same hotel room a decade earlier. The story alternates between Genevieve’s deposition and detective Sullivan’s first-person narration, with sly, Rashomon-style changes in interpretation accompanying each shift in perspective. Chua seeds the novel with fascinating nuggets of California history and real-life figures, including Margaret Chung, the first Chinese woman to become a physician in the United States. The result is a richly satisfying historical mystery that draws on its setting for more than mere atmosphere.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      After the ending of this compelling crime story, listeners hear a conversation between the author and narrator Robb Moreira. Moreira was enthusiastically selected by the audiobook producers to portray police detective Al Sullivan, who narrates this story about a prominent industrialist who is murdered in San Francisco's posh Claremont Hotel in 1944. Moreira's Sullivan is competent, persistent, yet caring. Moreira animates characters as diverse as low-life thugs, the upper-class Bainbridge women, and even Madame Chiang Kai-shek. Tim Campbell and Suzanne Toren ably narrate the court deposition sequences. This audiobook is part hard-boiled detective story, part family saga, and wholly good listening! D.L.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Yale Law School professor Chua's (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) fiction debut takes listeners to 1944 San Francisco. Prominent politician Walter Wilkinson has been brutally murdered in the exclusive Claremont Hotel, and detective Al Sullivan is put on the case. Sullivan follows several leads, one of which links the murder to the death of the seven-year-old daughter of the wealthy Bainbridge family a decade earlier. As he investigates, Sullivan navigates seas of racial prejudice, social unrest, and an unrestrained political machine. All eyes are on him--even Madame Chiang Kai-shek takes an interest in the case. Sullivan's inquiries take him from the glittering hotel to Chinatown meeting halls and Japanese kitchens. The Bainbridge family falls under suspicion, but multiple generations of intrigue and a determined family matriarch mask the truth. Narrators Robb Moreira, Suzanne Toren, and Tim Campbell breathe life into this complex story. Together, they provide a compelling reading of Sullivan's background and character while detailing historical facts, personages, and mores of the time. VERDICT A satisfyingly twisty historical mystery, combined with a thought-provoking social commentary. Chua's many fans will be intrigued by her first foray into fiction.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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