Rick Van Lam, born to a Vietnamese mother and American GI father, orphaned and brought to the US, grew up in an adoptive family and became a New York City police officer. Now retired, he is living in Connecticut, working as an insurance investigator and teaching criminology at local Farmington College. When he spots the lonely and eccentric, but brilliant, Vietnamese computer science student Dustin Trang, he is intrigued and tries to befriend the young man, but is repeatedly rebuffed. Dustin, who grew up in the projects and is at the college on full scholarship, also rejects the gregarious Hank, a young Vietnamese officer on the Connecticut State Police force and Rick’s closest friend. Then the most popular professor on campus—also a friend of Rick’s—is suddenly murdered, soon after being seen in a heated argument with Dustin, and Dustin becomes a prime “person of interest.”

Rick and Hank are convinced that the usually meek Dustin could not be a killer, despite his occasional flashes of temper. They launch a private investigation into the circumstances, but are baffled and frustrated by Dustin’s refusal to cooperate or confide in them. Slowly, aided by a colorful cohort of friends that includes Rick’s landlady, business partner, and ex-wife, Rick and Hank piece together the sad circumstances of Dustin’s dismal home life. But as they get closer to finding out the truth of what Dustin might fear more than a murder conviction, they realize they may be putting and themselves, and others, in danger.

This intriguing whodunit is the fourth installment in the Rick Van Lam series that explores the Vietnamese community of Hartford, Connecticut. Richly character-driven, Child of My Winter explores the ways the past can poison the present and how individuals can adapt—or fail to adapt—to difficult circumstances.