Enlisted by a suspicious Chinese businessman who deals in antiquities, Allan and a few of his friends are flown to Beijing to recover the ornately carved Jadeite Tablet created by none other than Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty, who ruled over 600 years ago.

The novel follows Clive Allan, a private eye who stumbles upon an ancient mystery he can’t help but pursue.

Trusting my tour guide, I was able to immerse myself in this story of backstabbers, riddles and treasure hunting on a frenetic romp throughout the massive Asian country. It may seem like a small thing, but it was important to get those initial details right, as this story was about to migrate to an even more exotic land: actual China. I was pleased to find that everything checked out and was excited to be taken on a journey through this small foreign land in the heart of downtown Boston. Of course, I read with a skeptical eye for inaccuracies. An area where I’d spent a good deal of time in my 20s. To bring this story full-circle, here’s my review of Eric’s new novel.Īs I began reading the novel, I was instantly hit with another nugget of serendipity: it takes place in my home of Boston. He sent me a link to his novels and The Color of Jadeite caught my eye with its espionage woven within the historical context of ancient China. Intrigued, I reached out to both authors and found out that they were actually longtime friends from Baltimore! What’s even more interesting is that they both stumbled upon FC independent of each other and neither was aware that we’d featured the other on our site. It seems that Eric had written a blurb for a review of Catastroika. While looking up his forthcoming novel, Catastroika, I noticed a familiar name. A few months later, we published a collection of poems by Charles Rammelkamp and I got to chatting with Charles. Goodman, it was the latter.Ī year ago, we published a novel excerpt by Eric, called “ Traffic Report,” from Setting the Family Free about a horde of animals unleashed on an Ohio town. It is sometimes an instant connection and other times a bit of serendipity.

Editor’s Note: Being in the publishing industry, I’m fortunate to regularly meet talented writers and artists.

The Color of Jadeite by Eric D. Goodman