Ava Lee

Get the very first book in the wildly popular Ava Lee series, which includes the prequel The Dragon Head of Hong Kong. In the first electrifying book of the series, Ian Hamilton introduces us to Ava Lee the smartest, most stylish heroine in crime fiction since Lisbeth Salandar. Ava Lee is a young Chinese-Canadian forensic accountant who works for an elderly Hong Kong based Uncle, who may or may not have ties to the Triads. At 115 lbs., she hardly seems a threat. But her razor sharp intellect and resourcefulness allows her to succeed where traditional methods have failed. In The Water Rat of Wanchai, Ava travels across continents to track $5 million owed by a seafood company. But its in Guyana where she meets her match: Captain Robbins, a huge hulk of a man and godfather-like figure who controls the police, politicians, and criminals alike. In exchange for his help, he decides he wants a piece of Ava's $5 million action and will do whatever it takes to get his fair share . . .Featuring the Prequel: The Dragon Head of Hong Kong: Young Ava Lee is a forensic accounting who has just opened her own private firm. One of her clients, Hedrick Lo, has been swindled of more than a million dollars by a Chinese importer named Johnny Kung. Desperate, Lo persuades Ava to find and retrieve the monies owed. Ava goes to Hong Kong, where she plunges into the dangerous underground collection business and meets a man who will forever change her life . . .

Ava is back, and she is tougher than ever as she uncovers the secret world of art fraud, in the third book in the wildly popular and bestselling Ava Lee Series. In The Wild Beasts of Wuhan, Uncle and Ava are summoned by Wong Changxing, "The Emperor of Hubei" and one of the most powerful men in China, when he discovers that the Fauvist paintings he recently acquired are in fact forgeries. Ava uncovers a ring of fraudulent art dealers and follows their twisted trail to Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Dublin, London, and New York. But the job is further complicated by Wong's second wife, the cunning and seductive May Ling, who threatens to interfere in Ava's investigation. Will Ava find the perpetrators and get the Wongs' money back? Or will May Ling get to them first . . .

Meet Ava Lee, alluring but deadly, with a mind like a steel trap, as she chases millions of dollars and dangerous criminals around the globe in this exotic and fast-paced new crime series by Ian Hamilton. In The Wild Beasts of Wuhan, Wong Changxing, a rich Chinese powerbroker, has just been bilked out of $100 million in an elaborate art forgery con. His one hope of recovering the money, and of saving face, is Ava Lee-a forensic accountant with a talent for tracking down untraceable funds. With the help of her mentor, the Triad-connected Uncle, Ava traces the provenance of the meticulously forged paintings to Denmark, the Faroe Islands, New York, and London. As she infiltrates one of the most prestigious auction houses in the world, she uncovers a massive web of corruption, where high art and high-stakes fraud threaten more than just her client's business- this is one scam that could get her killed. Ava Lee is one of the most scintillating, unique heroines to come along in years.

THE THIRD BOOK IN THE AVA LEE SERIES In Ian Hamilton's The Red Pole of Macau, family ties are stressed to the limit when intrepid forensic accountant Ava Lee must rescue her half brother, Michael, and his business partner, Simon, from a disastrous multimillion-dollar real-estate deal in Macau. When the developers turn out to be gangsters, Michael and Simon are threatened with bankruptcy and much worse. Ava struggles to salvage the deal and her family's money, but then Simon is kidnapped, and the rules of the game abruptly change. Determined to keep her mentor, Uncle, out of the affair, Ava is forced to turn to a former client, the cunning and seductive May Ling Wong, for help. With time running out, Ava must use all her skills to outwit the gangsters, rescue Simon, and save her family's future.

The fifth installment in the wildly popular Ava Lee series, The Scottish Banker of Surabaya exposes the dark world of money laundering and the Italian mob. Ava begins an investigation into what she thinks is a Ponzi scheme. The trail leads her to a bank in Indonesia that is run by a Scot, but in actuality is a front for an elaborate money-laundering operation for Italian mobsters. The relationship between Ava and the Scotsman turns nasty and personal. Meanwhile, Uncle's health problems become apparent...

The sixth installment in the wildly popular Ava Lee series from Arthur Ellis Award winner, Ian Hamilton. Ava has been in Hong Kong looking after Uncle. She has also set up an investment company with May Ling Wong and her sister-in-law, Amanda Yee. One of their first investments - a furniture company owned by two sisters in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo - runs into immediate problems with a Dutch customer. Ava goes to the Netherlands to investigate, but her life is threatened when she is confronted by a gang of local thugs in Borneo. Out of the shadows comes a mysterious man from Shanghai . . .

The seventh novel in the Ava Lee series finds Ava getting caught up in the election for the chairmanship of the Triad Societies. Ava steps into her new business with May Ling Wong and her sister-in-law, Amanda. On a trip to Shanghai, Ava meets with Xu, a young man Uncle had been mentoring and who is also the head of the Triad in Shanghai. Xu makes an audacious business proposal that she and May are compelled to consider. Meanwhile, separately and privately, he confides to Ava that he intends to run for the chairmanship of the Triad Societies and attempts to recruit her as his adviser and confidante. Against her will, Ava becomes enmeshed in Triad warfare and her future is threatened . . .

Ava is in Shanghai for the launch of the PÖ clothing line. She has invited Xu, and over the course of the glitzy event and a late-night dinner, she detects a certain hesitancy in him. He confides that the Tsai family, headed by Tsai Lian, the governor of Jiangsu Province and a "princeling" - he is the son of a general who was on the Long March with Mao and a member of China's power elite - is trying to force him and his Triad organization back into the drug business. Xu is already paying millions of dollars a year to various Tsai businesses, but the family wants more and thinks the new venture can deliver it. Xu believes this move would lead to his eventual destruction and feels he has nowhere to turn. If he opposes them, they will crush him. If he goes along with them, he thinks that inevitably the police and military will hunt him down. Ava sets out to help Xu deter the Tsai family. As she digs into the breadth and depth of the family's wealth and corruption, she gets caught up in a huge tangled web, extending all the way to the U.S. and the U.K., where it reaches the top echelons of political power.

Ava attends London Fashion Week for the launch of the PÖ fashion line, one of the major investments she and her partners in the Three Sisters - May Ling Wong and Amanda Yee - have made during the last year. With the exponential expansion of the luxury-brand market in China, Ava and her partners are determined to see a young Chinese designer break out in Europe and North America and they go full out in London. The show is a success, but perhaps too much of one. It attracts the attention of Dominic Ventola, the principal partner in the luxury fashion conglomerate VLG. The women are invited to Milan to meet with Ventola and senior executives in his company. VLG offers to buy the Three Sisters' stake in PÖ. Ava and her partners decline. A few days later, PÖ comes under attack in the fashion media and a large part of their customer base is pressured by VLG to abandon them. Ava decides to strike back and turns to Xu for assistance, leading to a confrontation between two of the world's biggest global crime syndicates: the Camorra and the Triad.

Ava has spent two nights luxuriating in a hotel in Yunnan Province with the actress Pang Fai, with whom she has begun a secret relationship. She receives an urgent phone call from Chang Wang, the right hand to the billionaire Tommy Ordonez and one of Uncle's oldest friends. Years ago, Ava and Uncle helped Tommy recover $50 million in a land swindle.Chang asks Ava to fly to Manila to meet with his friend, Senator Miguel Ramirez. Ramirez asks Ava to investigate a college in Tawi-Tawi, an island province in the Philippines, which he suspects is training terrorists. Ava's investigation leads to a partnership with a CIA agent, and together they attempt to stop an international plot, horrific in size and scope, only to have it turn on them. Ava's judgement and morals - which Uncle helped her forge - are tested like never before.

Ava travels to Beijing for the premiere of her secret lover Pang Fai's latest film, Mao's Daughter. After the screening, a distraught Fai tells Ava that she is being blackmailed by senior officials of the China Movie Syndicate. The Syndicate seeks sexual favours in return for their continued support of Fai's career and films. When Fai resists, the threats become increasingly violent and far-reaching, including the release of scandalous videos of the young Fai that could end her career entirely. Working alongside Fai and several of her friends, Ava delves deep into the seedy world of the Chinese film industry in an attempt to liberate her lover from the grasp of the Syndicate. But can Ava save Fai from her memories?

Ava is in Shanghai with Pang Fai to visit her ailing friend Xu when a triad war breaks out in Hong Kong. Sammy Wing, an old enemy of Ava's who has twice tried to kill her, has enlisted the aid of his nephew Carter - the new Mountain Master of Sha Tin - to reclaim control of his old territory, Wanchai, from Xu's men. There is nothing subtle about the Wings' methods. Xu's most trusted enforcer, Lop, has been shot, and six of his street soldiers kidnapped. The Wings threaten to execute them unless Xu's men vacate Wanchai immediately. Ava steps in to broker a settlement, and the Wings respond by sending her a box containing six fingers - and a twelve-hour deadline. As the violence and tension mount, Ava is driven to the edge, and she is forced to devise a plan that will bring her face-to-face with Sammy and Carter Wing. The only question left unanswered is who will pull the trigger first?

After the father of Ava's best friend, Mimi, loses his family's savings in a Ponzi scheme, Mimi turns to her old friend for help. Ava launches an investigation that sends her from Amsterdam to Antwerp and then to Singapore. As she tracks the money, Ava is reminded of an old case she worked with Uncle years before that took her to Singapore for the first time. In her mind, the two cases begin to merge, and as they do, Uncle becomes visible to Ava, counselling her and urging her to make use of her new triad connections. Ava is reluctant to do so, but Uncle is persistent, and soon Ava finds herself in conflict with one of the most influential family dynasties in Singapore and eventually back in Toronto, where she confronts the new face of power and corruption.

Ava Lee clashes with the most powerful family in Malaysia in the exhilarating new thriller from bestselling author Ian Hamilton. Ava Lee travels to Sarawak, Malaysia, after a business affiliated with the Three Sisters is bombed in Kuching. She quickly discovers that the powerful Chong family has a political and economic stranglehold on the province and is likely responsible for the bombing. As Ava investigates the Chongs, she is shocked to learn of their billion-dollar illegal logging operation in Sarawak, which has decimated the Malaysian rainforest and threatens the existence of the Penan, a nomadic Indigenous people who have lived in the region for centuries. Determined to put an end to the Chongs' dominion over Sarawak, Ava follows a money trail that leads back to the Hong Kong real estate market. There, Ava and Sonny Kwon embark on a campaign of terror against the Chong family, attacking their holdings and bank accounts. Can Ava attain the vengeance she seeks? Or, will the powerful Chong family triumph once again?

Ava Lee squares off against the Chinese government over a controversial film depicting the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre in the latest thriller from bestselling author Ian Hamilton. Ava Lee is in the French Riviera with Pang Fai and Lau Lau for the long-awaited premiere of Tiananmen at the Cannes Film Festival. As the film wins numerous awards and international acclaim, a distribution deal with a major American firm is arranged by the film's producer, Chen. When several months go by with no word from the Americans, Chen decides to travel to Los Angeles to determine what is preventing the film's release. En route from his home in Bangkok, Chen goes missing. Ava is called in to investigate and soon learns that Chen is being held by the Thai Immigration Services on orders of the Chinese government, which is unhappy with the film's depiction of the infamous massacre at Tiananmen Square. Using its growing power and influence, the Chinese government seeks to block the film's distribution and punish those responsible for its production. To protect her investment, Ava must find a way for Tiananmen to be released, while keeping secret her own involvement in the film's creation and ensuring that her friends are kept safe from retribution. It is a difficult balancing act, perhaps the most difficult of her life, as the stakes have never been higher nor has failure been more costly.

AVA LEE IS OUT FOR REVENGE IN THE LATEST-AND FINAL-INSTALLMENT IN IAN HAMILTON'S BESTSELLING THRILLER SERIES Still reeling from the brutal murder of her close associates, Lau Lau and Chen, Ava Lee embarks on a quest for revenge that takes her from Toronto to Los Angeles to Beijing. Along the way, Ava is aided by some familiar faces and old comrades-in-arms, including Sonny Kwon, Jimmy Li, Lop, and Xu, the mountain master of Shanghai. The search leads first to Ava's old opponent, Mo, the chairman of the China Movie Syndicate, and then to a shadowy figure at the very top of the Chinese Security Service-the man who gave the order to kill her friends. Events reach a deadly climax in front of the Tianqiao Theatre in Beijing, but exacting her revenge is only half the battle-getting out of China alive is another matter entirely…

Exclusive bundle of books 7, 8, and 9 in the wildly popular series Ava Lee: The Triad Years. This bundle includes: In The King of Shanghai Ava is finally ready to begin her new life as a partner in the Three Sisters venture capital firm. Ava travels to Shanghai to hear a pitch on a new investment possibility and meets with the mysterious Xu, a young man Uncle had been mentoring and who is the head of the Triad in Shanghai. Xu makes an audacious business proposal that she and May Ling are compelled to consider. Against her will, Ava becomes enmeshed in Triad warfare and her future is threatened…In The Princeling of Nanjing, Ava is in Shanghai for the launch of the PÖ clothing line. She has invited Xu, and over the course of the glitzy event and a late-night dinner, she detects a certain hesitancy in him. He confides that the Tsai family, headed by Tsai Lian, the governor of Jiangsu Province and a "princeling" is trying to force him and his Triad organization back into the drug business. Ava sets out to help Xu deter the Tsai family. As she digs into the breadth and depth of the family's wealth and corruption, she gets caught up in a huge tangled web, extending all the way to the U.S. and the U.K., where it reaches the top echelons of political power. In The Couturier of Milan, Ava attends London Fashion Week for the launch of the PÖ fashion line. The show is a success, but it attracts the attention of Dominic Ventola, the principal partner in the luxury fashion conglomerate VLG. VLG offers to buy the Three Sisters' stake in PÖ. Ava and her partners decline. A few days later, PÖ comes under attack in the fashion media and a large part of their customer base is pressured by VLG to abandon them. Ava decides to strike back and turns to Xu for assistance, leading to a confrontation between two of the world's biggest global crime syndicates: the Camorra and the Triad.

The prequel to the wildly popular Ava Lee series.Young Ava Lee is a forensic accounting who has just opened her own private firm. One of her clients, Hedrick Lo, has been swindled of more than a million dollars by a Chinese importer named Johnny Kung. Desperate, Lo persuades Ava to find and retrieve the monies owed. Ava goes to Hong Kong, where she plunges into the dangerous underground collection business and meets a man who will forever change her life . . .

Exclusive bundle of books 10, 11, and 12 in the wildly popular series Ava Lee: The Triad Years, plus a special preview of Fate, the first book in The Lost Decades of Uncle Chow Tung spin-off series. This bundle includes: In The Imam of Tawi-Tawi, Ava is contracted by a senator in the Philippines to quietly investigate a college on an island province that he suspects is training terrorists. While working with a CIA agent to uncover an international plot, horrific in size and scope, Ava's judgement and morals are tested like never before. In The Goddess of Yantai, Ava travels to Beijing for the premiere of her secret lover Pang Fai's latest film, Mao's Daughter. After the screening, a distraught Fai tells Ava that she is being blackmailed by senior officials of the China Movie Syndicate. Working alongside Fai and several of her friends, Ava delves deep into the seedy world of the Chinese film industry in an attempt to liberate her lover from the grasp of the Syndicate. But can Ava save Fai from her memories? In The Mountain Master of Sha Tin, Ava goes to Shanghai with Pang Fai to visit her ailing friend Xu when a triad war breaks out in Hong Kong. Sammy Wing, an old enemy of Ava's who has twice tried to kill her, has enlisted the aid of his nephew Carter - the new Mountain Master of Sha Tin - to reclaim control of his old territory, Wanchai, from Xu's men. As the violence and tension mount, Ava is driven to the edge, and she is forced to devise a plan that will bring her face-to-face with Sammy and Carter Wing. The only question left unanswered is who will pull the trigger first?