The China Caper

Jake Diamond is a Chinese antique dealer in San Frncisco and a special variety of sweet and sour sauce. Chun Liu ambles into his shop and offers Jake a piece of Chinese heaven, a 13th Century oil on silk painting by Zheng Mengfu. While there’s something oddly familiar about this Mr. Liu, it’s just not there. The scroll has all provenances and signatures and has been signed off by the experts but go figure, Jake discovers what he believes to be a fatal flaw in the scrolls authenticity. And so begins Jake’s Chinese adventure chasing Dr. Liu through the poetic and uniquely Chinese cities of Taipei, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Shuzou and Shanghai. Jake’s range of encounters run from Pentecostals, an accusation of murder, to his meeting his devilish jailer when a prisoner in the Korean War and a garlic eating Chinese cop who puts the kibosh to Jake’s future.