Gangsters of Shanghai - Paperback

by Gerry O'Sullivan (Author)

This Historical Thriller Set in Old Shanghai Will Keep You Guessing Until the Very End!

Shanghai 1927. Pearl of the East or Whore of the Orient? Depends on who you ask.

It's a cesspool of poverty, thronged with refugees, gripped by civil war.

But for some it's still a fever dream: jazz clubs, film stars, and opium dens, celebrities and spies, easy money and beautiful women.

The son of a rural Irish cop, Michael Gallagher has joined the Shanghai Municipal Police to escape an Ireland crippled by its recent bitter independence fight and escape a personal tragedy.

Michael encounters Shanghai's biggest philanthropist, a man called Big Ears Lu - who is also its creepiest racketeer.
He falls for the beautiful courtesan Miriam Tsai.

But does Michael's collusion with Lu keep Miriam trapped in the House of Multiple Joys?

Shanghai in 1927 is a city where after dark anything seems possible.

A city where anyone can be crushed, and anyone corrupted. Even an innocent Irish cop.

From the wreckage of guerrilla war in Ireland to the dawn of world war in Asia, Gangsters of Shanghai seethes with 20th Century turbulence and temptation.

Can Mike Gallagher remain uncorrupted, and escape the imploding city with his life and his self-respect?

If you want to find out what happens to Michael, scroll up and buy your copy today.

Reviews

From out of nowhere, this is one of the most enjoyable Shanghai novels we've read... Seek this superbly researched and deftly written novel out
Peter Desmond
City Weekend Magazine, Shanghai

Could not put this book down. As good as Grisham
Richard McCormack
Amazon.com reader

Superbly researched, it beggars belief that Gangsters of Shanghai is not filling the shelves in bookshops. It certainly deserves to be a best-seller.
David Lowther
Amazon.UK (Author of 'The Blue Pencil')

A crime drama that jumps back and forth between China and Ireland during the turbulent first third of the 20th Century .... This mystery thriller manages to provide more than enough well-rendered excitement to sustain readers' attention
Kirkus Reviews

Gerry O'Sullivan's portrait of Jazz-Age Shanghai is pungent and lush .... Action shifts back and forth between Shanghai in the late 1920s and early '30s, and the slightly earlier Troubles in Ireland .... O'Sullivan's rich descriptions and clearly extensive research brought both alive
Underground Book Reviews

It reached the top ten in the Amazon 'thrillers historical' genre .... The main protagonist .... carrying the adventurer's essential item of luggage, a broken heart, sets off to join the Shanghai Municipal Police .... One of the great strengths of this book is its credible atmosphere. Shanghai was a smouldering pit of corruption, poverty and hedonism, with a heaving and colourful nightlife
Grainne Keays
Limerick Leader, Ireland

Author Biography

Gerry O'Sullivan was born in Limerick, Ireland, where he indulged his taste for historical fiction, intelligent action thrillers and adventure books. A graduate of the University of Limerick, he moved to Australia and worked in the international education sector. Gerry was inspired to write this action mystery by his granduncle, a Detective Inspector in the Shanghai Municipal Police during the 1920's. Spellbound by old photographs and family lore, Gerry resolved to write an action adventure thriller with the accuracy of historical fiction. Gerry travelled to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Brandeis University, Boston where the top-secret files of the Shanghai Municipal Police Special Branch are kept on microfilm (they were smuggled out of Shanghai by the CIA in 1949). Gerry then moved to Singapore to immerse himself in the atmosphere of a fast paced English-speaking Asian city, as Shanghai was in the 1920's and 1930's. To achieve the pulse-quickening features of an action mystery with the demandingly accurate details of historical fiction, Gerry blended his granduncle's stories about his Shanghai police work, years of scholarly research, and his own experiences of the city.