Charles Philipp Martin has accomplished what many only dream of doing, playing his instrument, broadcasting on radio, and writing, and getting paid for it all in a far-away land. He found Hong Kong, or rather, Hong Kong discovered him. He lived there 17 years beginning when he was hired to play bass for the Hong Kong Symphony. He played bass on kung fu movie soundtracks, wrote a Sunday column for the South China Morning Post, and gigged at various venues.

He met his wife, Cathy, in Hong Kong. She played french horn in the orchestra. She now teaches music at Westside School. Their 17 year-old son Toby, was born in Hong Kong. He attends Garfield High School and plays cello. Charles currently records an English language jazz radio show for Hong Kong radio called Three O'Clock Jump from his home studio near Morgan Junction.

Hong Kong was a good fit for Martin because, he said, "It's kind of a paradise for musicians. All the hotels employ live musicians. You go to High Tea at the Peninsula Hotel and there is a string quartet playing."

Martin has just completed a crime novel set in Hong Kong, Neon Panic, Vantage Point Books, due to be released Oct. 1. According to the book's website, "Searing and atmospheric, NEON PANIC explores Hong Kong from the darkest alleys to the most luxurious clubs, revealing the clash of cultures in a city that is technologically advanced but morally ambiguous. With a setting this corrupted and a mystery this complex….everyone is a suspect, and no one is safe."

"A musician finds that his best friend disappears and searches for him," said Martin of the plot. "He gets deeper and deeper into Hong Kong's criminal culture. At the same time there is a woman's body that is discovered. A policeman and team are investigating the murder. At first it seems she was an illegal immigrant from China who tried to swim to Hong Kong. Turns out she was from Hong Kong, and a murder investigation begins. Eventually that story merges with the musician trying to find his friend."

Martin said there are not a lot of crime novels about symphony orchestras and from the police point of view, "It shows police work in the milieu of Hong Kong, how it works in that culture, and the cultural attitudes of the people.

"I started out writing a book that was a little autobiographical but I realized that wasn't going to work if I was going to do a crime novel. I'd have to get into the society of Hong Kong. I had a lot of police friends, both British and Chinese. Until 1997 there was the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, which is now the Hong Kong Police Force. The way you learn is you hear stories. Six million people live in a very small place. It's an exciting city to write about. It's fast, rich, but also a lot of people are cogs in the machine working very hard, laborers to feed this prosperity.

"Generally they are not resentful of the rich people they see going by," he said. "They say, 'good for him. That's me some day'. Not all of those people will be rich. In one sense it's an illusion, but what is interesting is the attitude that if you have wealth you are supposed to display it."

However, some wealth is derived through illegal activities through an organized crime network there known as "triads", which plays a major role in his novel.

Martin explained, "For a long time it was a port for illegal drugs. Before China opened up you couldn't ship things directly out of China to, say L.A. It had to come from Hong Kong. That's changed a lot now because shipping is less centralized. Today the infamous triads, the criminal organizations involved in many aspects of daily life, are more like the way the Mafia was a long time ago because every business pays a little piece of protection. If you are making a movie and want to use a certain street you better pay off the triad first or else you will find your movie lights start falling over, your scenery is breaking up and people won't show for work. It's a fact of life there."

Martin was born and raised in New York City's colorful Greenwich Village, a counter-culture mecca.

"I saw it," he recalled. "I was there. I was just a little too young to have fun. My elementary school was right on Washington Square. There was a time you lived in the Village because it was a little bit cheaper, a place for the artists to hang out. Only later did the stock brokers move there and ruin everything."

He dedicated Neon Panic to his parents, Thomas and Ruth, who have passed. Said Martin, "Both were musicians and literary people and translated operas into English that were performed at the Met and New York City Opera. My mother used to read mysteries by the carload. At the time I turned up my nose at it. I thought it was a waste of time. It took me years before I fell in love with crime and decided to write crime novels."

Charles Philipp Martin will have a book signing at Seattle Mystery Bookshop,
117 Cherry St., Saturday, Oct. 1st, Noon to 1:30pm. (206) 587-5737

You can purchase Neon Panic on Amazon.com here:

and Barnesandnoble.com here: