Walter Woon 
Advocate’s Devil 

Dennis Chiang is a stranger in his homeland. Just returned to the Straits Settlements after spending half his life in England, the young lawyer is thrown into the swirling brew that is colonial society in 1930s Singapore: a society of tuans and towkays, Babas and babus, where race is everything and even love cannot be wholly colour-blind. Juggling his career and personal responsibilities, Chiang encounters a life full of courtroom dramas, cultural prejudices and even communist intrigue. Never far away is Chiang’s mentor, the unflappable D’Almeida, who in public is a calm, efficient lawyer, but he possesses a shrewd investigative streak and uses unorthodox methods that result in his young protege Chiang being caught up in a succession of captivating adventures. The Advocate’s Devil is the first of two books featuring the character Dennis Chiang.