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Follow Her Home
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About the Author

STEPH CHA is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School. She lives in her native city of Los Angeles, California. Follow Her Home is her first novel.

Reviews

"[Song] is a compelling and original protagonist... One only hopes that Cha and her driven, neo-noir detective have more opportunities to explore those troubling intersections over many books to come." --LA Times "Engrossing... Steph Cha's intriguing debut Follow Her Home works as a testament to the power of storytelling and a cautionary tale against forsaking reality for fiction...Cha elevates Follow Her Home with glimpses at the culture of Korean-American families." --Oline Cogdill, Tulsa World "Cha's debut updates Marlowe's dark and dangerous LA to modern times while keeping the quirky characters and a twisty mystery that will hold readers to the bitter end." --Kirkus "Intriguing...it's clear that Song, a chain-smoking, hard-drinking, and noirish young woman with a Raymond Chandler fixation is well on her way to being a first-rate investigator." --Publishers Weekly "For fans of urban noir and of mysteries that address contemporary social issues. Cha is a promising mystery author to watch." --Library Journal "Many try to emulate Raymond Chandler; few succeed. Put Cha in the latter category.... [she] has that certain something that makes you want to follow Song on her next adventure." --RT Book Reviews "Follow Her Home's strength is in the creation of a relatable, dynamic, modern protagonist... Cha has penned a well-written, atmospheric text. But Follow Her Home is also a gritty tale that serves up social commentary on cultural fetishization." --KoreAM Magazine "While Cha pays very clear homage to Chandler -- indicated in the enthusiastic use of similes and Juniper often wondering what Marlowe would do -- she definitely transcends his influence to make the story her own... Cha does a great job of keeping the suspense taut, with deft pacing and effective cliff-hangers. Action pushes the plot resolutely forward -- whether Juniper is getting knocked out in the middle of the night or finding her bed chillingly made by someone other than herself. And Juniper herself is a likeable character with a distinct voice." --Hyphen Magazine "Stephanie Cha's brilliant debut is as Noir as Old Nick's sense of humour. Compelling from first to last page, she takes on contemporary L.A., sweeping the reader through Chandler's twilight, heartbroken city from mansions to faux K-town hostess bars. L.A. Noir at its finest." --Denise Mina, author of The Dead Hour "Follow Her Home takes a fresh trip down the sunny, dark streets of Los Angeles, and Juniper Song is a great guide - young, sharp, and worldly-wise. Keenly observed and deeply felt, the story slowly got under my skin. I couldn't put it down." --Meg Gardiner, Edgar Award-winng author of Ransom River "In a glittery L.A. of pretty, privileged twentysomethings, Stephanie Cha's Follow Her Home opens like a playful homage to Raymond Chandler but deepens into something darker: an utterly 21st-century ode to sisterhood in the face of crime. A fast-paced thriller told in smart, sparkling prose, Follow Her Home is a moving exploration of mothers and daughters, men and women, immigrant history, loss, and hope." --Joy Castro, author of Hell or High Water "A gripping narrative voice that's as fun as it is funky, sharp, and evocative." --Tom Piccirilli, author of The Last Kind Words and The Last Whisper in the Dark "Follow Her Home reveals a writer keenly aware and inspired by the subgenre of American noir fiction.... Cha's debut novel would fit very well into any American detective fiction course and would especially pair well with Walter Mosley, in her exploration of race, ethnicity, and the urban metropolis known as Los Angeles." --asianamlitfans.livejournal.com

A favor for a friend turns into a long, painful weekend for a young, directionless L.A. woman whose passion for the works of Raymond Chandler are put to the test in Cha's debut novel. Juniper Song (known as "Song") has been asked by her best friend, Luke, to investigate a young woman who may be having an affair with Luke's father. Song soon finds a body in her trunk and her closest friends and family are threatened. While piecing together the mystery, Song reminisces about what Chandler's sleuth Philip Marlowe might do in such a situation, and revisits the painful memories of the last time she played detective-trailing and confronting the man who seduced her underage sister. VERDICT Like Chandler's The Big Sleep, the "whodunit" is really beside the point, and the work succeeds (and at times fails) because of the atmosphere it creates. Some of the relationships that are meant to be important, such as that of Song's two best friends Luke and Diego, fail to register, while Cha's examination of young women of Asian descent as objects of predatory fetishes (through the investigation of Lori and the backstory of Song's sister) are disturbing and compelling-propelling the mystery into its best moments. For fans of urban noir and of mysteries that address contemporary social issues. Cha is a promising mystery author to watch. [See Prepub Alert, 11/4/12.]-Julie Elliott, Indiana Univ. Lib., South Bend (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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