City on Fire: A Novel of Hong Kong by Simon Elegant

Audiobook cover of City on Fire: A Novel of Hong Kong by Simon Elegant. Against a black background is shown what appears to me to be the outlines of buildings and streets seen from above. Huge, deep red flames are shooting across the image.

Well narrated by Mike Chamberlain

Pegasus Crime, 2026; Bookshop.org⩘ ; audiobook: Dreamscape Media, 2026; Libro.fm⩘ .

Full review: City on Fire: A Novel of Hong Kong by Simon Elegant⩘

Character list

Superintendent Killian Riordan Tong, aka Killian Conor Bogong or Ah Gong, gweilo (white person), heunggong jai (made in Hong Kong), under inquiry for shooting a young boy, Shek Ga Keong, at a protest
Tsim Bei Tsui station, a rural coastal station where Killian lives while he is under inquiry
Jun, full name, Tong Bojun, also known as Siobhan Riordan, Killian's daughter, frequently joins protests
Gau, Killian's dog
Senior Superintendent Pang, Crime NOIC
Chief Inspector Choi of Tin Shui Wai station, aka Blue, young and relatively inexperienced, but senior CID on site
Chief Inspector Lin and Inspector Yeong, CID investigators, subordinate to Choi
Chan Wai Lik, chief forensics officer
Hanson Poon, chief pathologist at Victoria mortuary
Eddie Tsang, deputy commissioner for operations. Number two in the Force and probably the next commissioner of police, was Killian's father's deputy, when Killian was a kid, he had called him Uncle Eddie
Kelvin, Jun's friend
Wellington 2020, protest leader
Senior Superintendent Weng, head of CID
Kwok Lai Meng, founder of the Special Tactical Squad (STS)
Raptors, the name the STS squad calls themselves
Alex Tse Wai Mun, senior superintendent and head of Tin Shui Wai district
Ngam Man Lik, aka Zen, Technical Services Group
Tsinyi Ngai, suspect arrested in landfill case by STS led by Kwok
Deacon Chiu Lok Mun, family in China, retired from a parish in the Philippines, matches photo of corpse in dump

Full review: City on Fire: A Novel of Hong Kong by Simon Elegant⩘