Concentric Circles

About the Book

John Linger, an English drifter and confidence man settles in Hong Kong.  He is middle aged when he falls in love with a gorgeous Chinese girl.  Ng Lee Chin marries him, but without love.  She is more anxious to leave the family farm and set up dress shops in Britains Crown Colony.

The Lingers have a daughter, an Eurasian beauty.  Lee Chin visits Paris, has an affair with a fashion house executive, then returns to Hong Kong to be a better wife.  John dies in his early fifties.

Their daughter, Mary Jo, attends school in Europe and marries an Amerasian whose father is a Japanese national living in Seattle.  The parent is a member of one of the powerful Yakuza (gang or mafia) families.  The bridegroom is murdered only days after the wedding.  Mary Jo is pregnant.

Her son is born and raised in Hong Kong.  He is James Rae Linger, Jimmy Ling.  Bright,  handsome, athletic and unaware of being taught psychic abilities, he is educated in Hong Kong and in Europe.  Schooling completed, Jimmy Ling is enticed into the yakuza.

Noted for his language skills of Chinese, Japanese, English and French, Jimmy spends time in Japan before returning to operate a yakuza owned business in Hong Kong.  His paternal grandfather becomes his closest associate.  Together, and at the direction of the yakuza, they become involved with a notorious Chinese gang of criminals.  

Passion, love, drugs, involvement with Intelligence agencies and finally armed conflict move the story with speed and emotion.

About the Author

Joseph L. Piot (pe-oh) spent thirty five years immersed in International affairs, residing abroad in Iran, Venezuela and England. He served as president and CEO of eight U.S. and European facilities of a major Japanese chemical company. Currently retired, he lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Winnie.