Chop Suey by Ty Hutchinson

Reality check: The success of my business plan involves doing business with organized crime. – Darby Stansfield

Chop Suey is what would happen if you threw Glengarry Glen Ross and Office Space in a blender. Then added a serial killer. And Triads.

Telecommunications salesman Darby Stansfield is desperate. Having hit a bad stretch with his sales, he’s been put on notice he’s got six months to get his numbers headed in the right direction again or he’ll be fired.

Problem is, Darby doesn’t have any good leads. The one decent client he had was stolen out from under him by another salesman, leaving Darby with nothing but one-sale, dead end, mom-and-pop clients.

When a conversation with Mr. Fu, the owner of his favorite Chinese restaurant, brings up the subject of Triads inspiration strikes… he will tap into a previously untapped source of clientele and become a telecommunications specialist for organized crime. Darby will help the “organized” get organized.

Knowing he needs a bit of room to operate without being too scrutinized by the home office in San Francisco, Darby decides to branch out. To Hong Kong. Following up on information obtained from Mr. Fu, Darby actually manages to connect with the Fan Gang Triad, sell them on his plan, set up a fake toy company as a front for the operation, place a massive first order, and before you know it he’s on his way back to the top of the leaderboard. Coffee time, right? Wrong.

Competing Triads are less than pleased with the sudden surge in the Fan Gang’s efficiency and profitability, sparking an all out gang war, a suspicious and vindictive co-worker on the homefront is out to sabotage Darby’s big new account, the amazing woman Darby falls for in Hong Kong turns out to be a Detective – on the organized crime task force no less – and then there’s the little matter of dead bodies that start popping up, the apparent work of a serial killer who seems to be spending time in both San Francisco and Hong Kong, just like Darby. Hang on folks, things are getting interesting.

It takes a lot of skill to mix laugh-out-loud funny with hardcore crime and have both be believable, but author Ty Hutchinson pulls it off without a hitch. Though Chop Suey does take a little bit of time to establish Darby’s character and his situation at the telecommunications company before things really get rolling it’s worth it, because once they do take off you’d better buckle-up. Hutchinson deftly weaves his three plot lines together in an increasingly frenetic pace, rocketing to an explosive conclusion. Literally. I’ll leave it to you to discover how things ultimately fare for Darby and his plan to rule the telecommunications underworld, but rest assured you’ll never look at your smartphone quite the same way again.

Ty Hutchinson has cooked up a hell of a debut, so treat yourself to some Chop Suey takeout tonight.

Chop Suey is available at Amazon for $2.99.