Broken Kite

Timothy J. Lockhart

By guest reviewer Nicholas Litchfield,
editor of the Lowestoft Chronicle

A MISSING-PERSON case sweeps private investigator Wendy Lu into the murky underbelly of Virginia Beach, a city where the lost and desperate slip through the cracks and justice remains a rare commodity.

In Broken Kite, Timothy J. Lockhart’s second Wendy Lu novel, he exposes the grim realities of human trafficking and the narrow margin between survival and ruin. Lockhart (pictured below), both a lawyer and former Navy intelligence officer, brings the weight of lived experience to his fiction. 

Since his 2017 debut, Smith, he has earned a place among writers of lean and gritty mysteries with his stories marked by a tough procedural edge and emotional grit. Set in southeastern Virginia, Wendy Lu is a Chinese American ex-cop and Navy veteran who bears the scars of her past. Still haunted by the death of her former police partner and lover, Bobby, an event that led to her resignation and struggles with alcoholism, she is propelled by a need for redemption, often taking on cases long abandoned by others.

Her latest call comes from Wang Feng, owner of the Bamboo House and half-sister to the missing Wang Zheng. Zheng, once a promising student derailed by debt and isolation, is drawn into exploitation, from restaurant work to camgirl performances as ‘Lotus’, and eventually to the uncertain safety of ‘not completely legitimate’ massage parlours.

Zheng’s diary reveals a hopeful yet heartbreakingly lonely voice. Her first cam show earned only $63, but she believed she would ‘make more money as she got better – better, that is, in doing what her viewers would pay money to see.’ That loneliness echoes through every step of Wendy’s search.

Throughout the investigation, Wendy finds little support. Detective Carly Sherman, hawkish and fiercely territorial, and Michael Chen, a trafficking task force officer, offer only the barest help. Sherman remains sceptical, while Chen grudgingly respects Wendy’s persistence. For Wendy, the work always comes down to those who are left behind, and her stubborn empathy keeps her moving forward. As Wendy traces Zheng’s path, she moves through the blurred boundary between commerce and coercion. Few truly grasp what Zheng endured. Rebekah Ringgold, a seasoned camgirl, warns of the predatory men who circle these women, men with ‘yellow fever’ and no respect for boundaries. The most important rule, she insists, is to ‘never, ever give them any personal information’.

Zheng’s American alias, ‘Zoë’, leads Wendy to Tidewater Community College and Jim Lambert, whose easy manner may conceal darker motives. At the massage parlour, colleagues recall Zheng’s sudden disappearance and a string of clients, mostly older men and one imposing, bald foreign ‘boss’, hinting at something larger and more sinister beneath the city’s veneer. Wendy’s relationship with law enforcement underscores her position as both outsider and expert. Meanwhile, Vanessa, a sharp-witted lawyer, and Meihua, Wendy’s sister struggling with postnatal depression, serve as reminders of what’s at stake.

Tensions escalate when Ringgold is found murdered in her apartment, a stark sign that as Wendy gets closer to the truth, the danger only increases. The case becomes personal; every clue is a warning, and every step forward raises the threat to Wendy’s own life. Sherman, once dismissive, becomes an uneasy ally but, in the end, Wendy must rely on her own resolve and training.

Every encounter in Wendy’s search pulses with menace. Violence feels imminent, checked only by Wendy’s tenacity and refusal to yield. Her compassion and courage pull her deeper into dangerous territory, her drive for justice both a guide and a burden. The true force of this series entry lies in the raw humanity that pulses through every scene. Wendy Lu’s search for Zheng resists tidy conclusions as Lockhart leaves readers in a moral haze, wrestling with questions about justice and survival which persist long after the final page.

Taut and unsparing, yet anchored by hard-won empathy, Broken Kite is a bruising, deeply human noir... where the search for justice leaves its imprint on a woman who refuses to let the lost remain forgotten.
(Stark House Press, paperback, £11.95)

⬛Nicholas Litchfield is an English-born author and journalist who lives in Western New York. He established the Lowestoft Chronicle, a quarterly online magazine, in 2009. It publishes short stories, flash fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews and artwork.(lowestoftchronicle.com)