The book opens with Shek Yeung’s husband, Cheng Yat, receiving a mortal injury. To carry out that wish, Shek Yeung negotiates a marriage to his heir, Cheung Po, with the promise of a son. Despite the fearsomeness of the historical figure, Chang-Eppig’s Shek Yeung is pensive and passive. When Shek Yeung disembowels a man, we do not see, hear, feel or smell anything. Only in the last 100 pages, when the Qing emperor’s pirate hunter, Pak Ling, becomes a credible threat, does Shek Yeung blossom into her namesake and act with vitality and resolve.

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Persons: Rita Chang, Ching Shih, Cheng, Sao, Yeung, Ching, Kuang’s, Bardot, ”, Larry Feign’s, ” Rita Chang, Shek, Cheng Yat, Shek Yeung, Cheung Po, Chang, Pak Ling Organizations: AS, SEA, “ Pirates Locations: South China, Caribbean