The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu by Tom Lin

Little, Brown and Co., 288 pages, $28

If Quentin Tarantino, Sam Peckinpah, or John Woo made a movie starring a Chinese gunslinger roaming the Wild West, this book would be the inspiration. There are bullets flying, Bowie knives flashing, and scattershots scattered. In contrast, the backbone of the story is one of love.

The title tells you the “hero” of the piece is Ming Tsu. Whether he actually is a hero is one of the primary questions. (I’ll try to give as little of the plot away as possible because revelations are teased out throughout the book.)

Here’s a brief aside about the construction of the transcontinental rail lines. In 1969, then transportation secretary John A. Volpe stated at the centennial celebration of the golden spike ceremony, commemorating when the railroad coming from the west was joined with one coming from east, “Who else but Americans could have laid 10 miles of track in 12 hours?” He neglected to mention the thousands of immigrant Chinese and Irish workers who worked the lines and made the American dream of a railroad crossing the United States possible. In fact, a few years after the completion of the first line, the Chinese were rewarded by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. (Insert sarcasm emoji.)

As the book begins, Ming Tsu had spent time working on the railroad, driving spikes, working impossibly long days, suffering with thousands of other Chinese workers. He had escaped but was now back to avenge himself for the physical and mental abuse by his white overseer. We learn Ming is a crack shot and a ruthless hunter.

After killing the boss, Ming escapes and takes with him an old man known as “the prophet.” The prophet is blind. Who knows how he managed to survive in the work crew. The prophet lives up to his name as he throws out predictions throughout the book. He can divine the hour and manner of a person’s death. He can foretell disaster. He can sense nobility or weakness.

Ming is on the hunt for other men who have wronged him. The targets are scattered between The Great Salt Lake and California. Eventually, they join a traveling geek show as a cover. The Ringmaster introduces Ming and the prophet to what he says are miracles. The miracles are people, like Hunter, a young boy who is deaf and mute but who can broadcast thoughts into people’s heads; Notah, who can erase people’s memories; Proteus, who takes the shape of different people, most notably the Ringmaster; and Hazel, a woman who can survive being set on fire. Yes, really! They can.

Okay, I hear you saying, what the heck?

Author Tom Lin embraces the mythology of the person who has many labors to fulfill as part of a quest. The powers of good and evil can help or thwart the hero’s journey. This particular journey of Ming Tsu includes a little effort by the supernatural. Is the hero made of the right stuff? If so, he will succeed. “The Thousand Crimes” is about Ming’s journey. But how will success be defined?

Lin combined a great feel-the-grit, taste-the-hard-tack sort of description of the country the group traverses with more literary prose. (Sometimes phrases like, “They traveled together under a fishscale moon,” warred with “Ming stepped out into the hallway, found the man he’d shot through the door writhing on the ground, and killed him.”)

This book kept calling me back to read just one more page, just one more chapter. If I thought the body count excessive, maybe that was the point. If I found the main character too sad and too damaged, maybe that, too, was the point.