The Mountain Master of Sha Tin is the 12th book in the Ava Lee thriller series by Ian Hamilton. Released 2nd July 2019 from House of Anansi, it's 360 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

This is a tightly written and thoroughly readable thriller series with a strong female protagonist who is a savvy intelligent and fearless badass. She's got a bit of a superwoman thing going on (readers are never afraid she's going to ultimately fail), but it's still a lot of fun to read. These books may be ever so slightly formulaic, but they're solid escapist fun and intelligently written and engaging.

This is the 12th book in the series and there's a strong serial development for the characters and their interrelations and back-stories. I would recommend that they be read in order. It's certainly possible to read this one as a standalone, the author is adept at providing the necessary background without info dumping, but especially getting a good feel for the relationships between the various triad gangs and secondary characters is easier when reading at least a few of the prior books in the series.

The setting is exotic and written with a palpable sense of place. After a bit of benign online author stalking, I can't see that he has lived or spent a significant amount of time in Asia, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me. It felt very believable during reading.

I enjoyed this action filled thriller and the characters and dialogue. Well worth a read for lovers of the genre.

Four stars.

As there was obviously a glitch in me receiving permission to review this title I will post the review I gave on Goodreads after reading the book via another source.
"Ava ends up on triad business in Hong Kong for big brother Xu. Ava has come a long way since I first met her. I'm still loving every episode of her life. I'm awed by Hamilton's knowledge
Another scintillating read!"