The entertaining fifth volume of Ed Lin's popular Taipei Night Market series, The Dead Can't Make a Living, gathers the familiar crew of Unknown Pleasures, which specializes in grilled skewers in Shilin Night Market. Reunited are proprietor Jing-nan, a UCLA dropout who returned to Taiwan to salvage the family business in challenging times; his brilliant biomedical researcher girlfriend, Nancy; and loyal employees Dwayne (yes, a nod to "the Rock"), who is Indigenous Amis Taiwanese, and Frankie the Cat, a former soldier and political prisoner.
Jing-nan may be persona non grata with the local police precinct, because they blame him for their chief's recent death, but customers still come to his booth in droves for the delectable food, the inviting social media presence, and of course death. In this installment, the corpse is a young man who turns out to be a Filipino migrant factory worker. The government sees him as merely collateral damage that can be erased with a financial settlement, but his family needs justice, which sends Jing-nan undercover to the factory to expose what really happened. Dangers aside, in case of trouble, he can always name-drop his powerful gangster uncle's moniker, right?
Lin cleverly ensures each volume easily stands alone, but reading in order reaps significant benefits; for example, check out the fourth entry, Death Doesn't Forget, for details explaining police animosity. Lin continues to write with an irresistible nonchalance, adroitly balancing heavier themes of migrant exploitation, criminal organizations, and government corruption with well-timed humor. Murder is never funny, but discovering whodunit here certainly has rollicking, comical moments. --Terry Hong