The next installment of the Cape Weathers mystery series is a fun, fast paced read, that takes the reader on an adventure that feels just like a movie script. While chasing down art in another country – you are so acclimated to area and adventures on the pages that you are in the moment with the characters. Note – this is my first read in this series, but was able to understand the characters enough to make me want to go back and read the rest of the books (adding to my tbr now) Violence, action, mystery and dry humor sum this very enjoyable book by Tim Maleeny.

Although this book is part of a book series, I felt like this is one of the rare cases where the book works as a standalone very well.
There was something mesmerizing about this book. Although it is not the main story, just a mere touch of the background, the Chinatown part was really atmospheric and set the mood. I know it's weird to point out a specific part of the book so much, but that was something I really, really enjoyed there. The Chinatown mood.
Otherwise, this is a gripping, action-packed page-turner of a police/crime thriller/mystery, filled with suspense and really vivid scenes and well-written characters.

Tim Maleeny’s latest Cape Weathers mystery takes readers to San Francisco’s Chinatown, into the world of art, and to China itself. Best of all, though, Hanging the Devil takes readers on a fast-paced adventure.

Eleven-year-old Grace wasn’t really supposed to be at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco at night, but her uncle had no other options yet. She had arrived from Hong Kong a week earlier, not knowing if her parents were killed or arrested in a protest in Victoria Park. Her father sent her to her uncle, a security guard at the museum. When a helicopter crashes into the skylight of the museum, Grace watches her uncle die. Two men and a ghostly figure steal a statue, but the ghost sees Grace.

Grace flees to Chinatown where she’s found by Sally Mei. Sally is hunting a man who was drugging women in Chinatown, but her mission is to protect Chinatown. That also means she rescues Grace, who reveals her story of the museum and the ghost. Sally is a business partner with reporter turned PI Cape Weathers. After she calls him, he shows up at the museum just as a representative from Interpol’s Cultural Heritage Crime Division shows up. Cape and Maria size up each other, and realize they might be able to work together. They’ll need to work together if they want to prevent another art heist.

Hanging the Devil is a relentless, non-stop story featuring an art heist, art forgery made into manufacturing, China’s politics, the Triads and San Francisco’s tongs, along with the deteriorating city with its politics. But, it also has two investigators teaming up to protect a young witness, their client. There’s violence and action, along with a great deal of dry humor.

Here’s my favorite line from the book. Cape talks with a police officer responsible for the investigation at the museum, and asks if he has a plan. “I’m a cop. We don’t make plans. We just wait for horrible shit to happen, then we arrest somebody.”

There’s a lot of “horrible shit” that happens in Maleeny’s captivating Hanging the Devil.

Someone is stealing priceless Chinese art from museums around the world….can a well-meaning PI stop their next heist?

Grace, an eleven year old Chinese girl recently arrived in San Francisco, is spending the night in the Asian Art Museum with her uncle who is a guard there. Her parents and she were caught up in a protest in Hong Kong, and her father was able to get Grace smuggled out of the country before he was picked up and imprisoned. When a helicopter carrying three individuals crashes through the skylight of the museum, however, her uncle is killed and Grace has to run yet again….but not before seeing the two Chinese men and what appears to be a ghost. Grace’s luck is not all bad, however….as she races through the streets of Chinatown looking for refuge, she runs into Sally Mei. Sally, orphaned at a young age herself and raised to be an assassin by the Triads, broke ties with the organization years ago and now works with PI Cape Weathers. She also considers it her mission to keep the residents of Chinatown safe as long as she lives there, so she puts Grace under her protection. Grace’s story of seeing a ghost stealing a Buddha seems pretty out there, but Sally and Cape are inclined to believe her. They find themselves, with the aid of a beautiful Interpol agent, struggling to keep Grace safe from the local tongs who want to erase this inconvenient witness and from those behind the botched art heist, who may have ties with the Chinese government. Throw in some angry members of the Russian mob, and corruption in the art world, and its clear that Sally and Cape are up against formidable odds.
Cape Weathers, former war correspondent and investigative reporter turned PI, is a likeable, joke-cracking member of his profession in the mold of Robert Parker’s Spenser or John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee. In this, the fifth outing in the series, it is Sally and Grace who are the main players, and that pairing works very well indeed. Sally sees a bit of herself as a child in Grace, and Grace certainly needs someone who understands what she’s going through and can teach her to defend herself. The portrayal of the art “factories” in China is fascinating, and the depiction of a San Francisco struggling with street crime, the homeless and rampant drug use rings sadly true. I found the story to be fast paced, full of details on both sides of the Pacific, and while a few of the side characters were somewhat cookie cutter, I thoroughly enjoyed the plot line, the main characters and the levity interspersed with the chaos. Readers of the series will enjoy this new installment, as will readers of the authors mentioned above. Many thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy of Hanging the Devil, a read I greatly enjoyed.

Hanging the Devil was a good read. I read it as a standalone and that did not hinder my understanding in any way. The story was very exciting and thrilling. I did want more of the thriller aspect out of the book though. Overall, it was a page-turn but I would categorise it as more of an action-packed mystery.

Since the first book in this series, Stealing the Dragon, Cape Weathers has grown as a protagonist and I now find myself fully invested in all they do. This book is another page turner, with plenty of action and snappy dialogue to keep you engaged. This author does something special with these books and characters - they make them seem real even in the face of exotic locations and unlikely challenges. This sense of possibility makes the series one to follow.