Chan Ho-Kei’s The Borrowed was one of the most acclaimed international crime novels of recent years, a vivid and compelling tale of power, corruption, and the law spanning five decades of the history of Hong Kong. Now he delivers Second Sister , an up-to-the-minute tale of a Darwinian digital city where everyone from tech entrepreneurs to teenagers is struggling for the top. A schoolgirl—Siu-Man—has committed suicide, leaping from her twenty-second floor window to the pavement below. Siu-Man is an orphan and the librarian older sister who’s been raising her refuses to believe there was no foul play—nothing seemed amiss. She contacts a man known only as N.—a hacker, and an expert in cybersecurity and manipulating human behavior. But can Nga-Yee interest him sufficiently to take her case, and can she afford it if he says yes? What follows is a cat and mouse game through the city of Hong Kong and its digital underground, especially an online gossip platform, where someone has been slandering Siu-Man. The novel is also populated by a man harassing girls on mass transit; high school kids, with their competing agendas and social dramas; a Hong Kong digital company courting an American venture capitalist; and the Triads, market women and noodle shop proprietors who frequent N.’s neighborhood of Sai Wan. In the end it all comes together to tell us who caused Siu-Man’s death and why, and to ask, in a world where online and offline dialogue has increasingly forgotten about the real people on the other end, what the proper punishment is.

他遺忘了六年歲月， 卻忘不了那抹死前的濃豔笑意…… 我從睡夢中驚醒，頭痛欲裂，完全記不清自己昨天的行蹤，發生在東成大廈的雙屍命案卻漸漸清晰成形：一個狂暴的丈夫殺死情夫和情夫的懷孕妻子。表面上看來這個案件再簡單不過了，但我卻感到一絲不協調感，或許是刑警的直覺吧。 當我掙扎起身去上班，才驚覺今天竟然是2009年3月15號──我明明記得現在是2003年，命案才發生了一個星期啊！ 難道……我失去了六年的記憶？ 正在不知所措時，有位女記者為了這宗轟動一時的「陳年舊案」跑來找我採訪，並決定和我聯手重新展開調查。然而挖掘越深，我就越感到不安，因為我發現在那段遺忘了的過去之中，我跟案件之間有著不可告人的秘密……

我們以為自己走在正確的道路上， 為什麼走著走著，人生卻變了樣？ 第一本讓我們感到驕傲的華文警察小說最高傑作！ 一組數字，六個片斷， 構成一位警探的故事， 一座城市的故事， 一個時代的故事…… 四個月之前，沒有人想到這個城市會有這樣的改變！ 因為一樁糾紛，蔓延成暴動，整個城市陷入蠢蠢不安，危機一觸即發。 有人怒吼著抗爭，想要改變現狀，也有人只是默默希望一個穩定的未來，而他徘徊在兩個極端之間，站在界線上。 曾經，他嚮往成為一名警察，只是身處在這個動盪的時代裡，讓他不得不打消念頭。 沒想到，偶然間聽到的一句話，竟把他捲進危險的漩渦，彷彿命中注定要跟警察同進退。 但他更沒想到的是，他和身邊的人都想反抗自己的命運，卻從此走上天差地遠的道路…… 這是一部讓你想向作者脫帽致敬的小說！新生代作家陳浩基為我們展現了他無比的潛力和企圖心，六個短篇串連出一位警探傳奇的一生，充滿意外性與戲劇性的情節，緊緊扣住我們的脈息，而在虛實交錯的故事中，我們看見了關於使命、關於服從、關於公義與自由的叩問，更看見個人的抉擇、時代的移轉、城市的變遷，如何深深地在命運的畫布上烙下斑駁的印痕。