The Third Bullet

While the world is shocked by the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the tragedy reminded us of the attempted assassination of President Chen Shui-Bian in 2004 which was mostly believed to be staged by Chen himself in order to win reelection. THE THIRD BULLET is based on this true but infamous “two bullets” incident.

President Hsu is injured in the stomach as he rides his customized campaign Jeep through the crowds up noisy Huayin Street in his own reelection bid. Closed perimeter and first findings: two empty cartridges from a war rifle were abandoned in a hotel room, and two homemade pistol bullets were found, one in the President’s pocket and the other at the bottom of the Jeep. It doesn’t fit…

Wu, a detective for an insurance company since retiring from the police, is assigned to investigate by Hsu’s rival, who is ahead of him by a few points in the polls. And Alex, now a clandestine cook, who had been lured to the site by a fake text message from Wu, must flee because they are trying to pin the attack on him. He teams up with Susuki, another sniper on the loose and ex-Legion, to help Wu uncover the real plot.

We find in this new opus everything that made the success of the previous one, namely: A real and good detective story against a backdrop of politics and local gastronomic specialties, all in a removed and insolent tone, admirably served by the translation of Roddy Flagg.