“A missing-person case sweeps private investigator Wendy Lu into the murky underbelly of Virginia Beach, a city where the lost and desperate slip through the cracks and justice remains a rare commodity.
In Broken Kite, Timothy J. Lockhart’s second Wendy Lu novel, he exposes the grim realities of human trafficking and the narrow margin between survival and ruin. Lockhart, both a lawyer and former Navy intelligence officer, brings the weight of lived experience to his fiction. Since his 2017 debut, Smith, he has earned a place among writers of lean and gritty mysteries with his stories marked by a tough procedural edge and emotional grit.
Set in southeastern Virginia, Wendy Lu is a Chinese American ex-cop and Navy veteran who bears the scars of her past. Still haunted by the death of her former police partner and lover, Bobby, an event that led to her resignation and struggles with alcoholism, she is propelled by a need for redemption, often taking on cases long abandoned by others.”
My review of Timothy J. Lockhart’s taut and unsparing noir Broken Kite was published today in the Blackpool Gazette, Burnley Express, Lancashire Post, Lancaster Guardian, Sheffield Star, Wigan Today (Wigan Observer & Wigan Post), and Yorkshire Evening Post. Previously, it was published in Book-marked, the blog of book critic Pam Norfolk, on January 11, 2026. Archived online access to these reviews as they originally appeared can be found at these weblinks:
Blackpool Gazette, Book-marked, Burnley Express, Lancashire Post, Lancaster Guardian, Sheffield Star, Wigan Today (Wigan Observer & Wigan Post), and Yorkshire Evening Post.