JAN PEARSON IS A THREE-TIMES SUPPLEMENTARY PRIZE WINNER IN THE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL PROVERSE PRIZE COMPETITION

JAN PEARSON has lived in Australia for most of her adult life and these days enjoys rural living on the scenically beautiful Far North Coast of New South Wales in Australia.

Her initial background is in earth sciences and she has had a twenty-year career in various policy roles.

Jan has now turned to writing, drawing from her imagination, memory and life experiences. In particular, she draws material for her books from her memories of living in Hong Kong during the 1960s.

The above description was provided by the writer at the time of publication.

Her four works of crime fiction focus on her beloved Hong Kong. They are Black Tortoise Winter (Proverse, 2016), Red Bird Summer (Proverse, 2014) ,Tiger Autumn (Proverse, 2015) and Blue Dragon Spring (Proverse, 2020).

Jan has spoken at Proverse functions in Hong Kong on three occasions and two videos of her talks are available on youtube. Most recently, she spoke at the Proverse Autumn Reception, 2019. You can view the video of this talk at: https://youtu.be/7mYYxXXwZAg

For Jan's introduction to Black Tortoise Winter at the "Proverse Publishing Parade" in November 2016: 

https://youtu.be/MOz8iW7AZiQ

AVAILABILITY
Most Proverse Hong Kong titles can be seen and purchased at the Proverse page on the website of our Hong Kong based distributor, the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press:  https://cup.cuhk.edu.hk/Proversehk
You can also find most titles (paperback and ebook editions) on various amazon sites as well as those of other online retailers.


BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO Tiger Autumn

In October 1964, as Pearl Green approaches her twentieth birthday in a Hong Kong where the sixties are rocking, China is about to enter the global arms race by detonating the country’s first nuclear device.

The air is thick with intrigue and the anticipation of trouble, which breaks out when leading nuclear scientist Dr Lin Dei – ordered to return toBeijing after destroying his research results – murders his supervisor and flees, taking his valuable research papers with him.

 Tiger Autumn shares many characters with Red Bird Summer. As in Red Bird Summer, the reader witnesses terrible events in Kowloon Walled City, and sees the Hei Ling Chau Island leper colony become both a haven from pursuit and a place to repent past crime.

PRAISE FOR Tiger Autumn

"Tiger Autumn is ... one of the best Hong Kong novels in years, because its author writes simply; gets on with a  well-crafted plot; and builds credible dialogue and characters. Pearson has remembered that fiction is entertainment as much as art, and she is certainly a name to watch." --  William Wadsworth, Sunday Morning Post, Hong Kong, 24 May 2015.

In RED BIRD SUMMER, Pearl Green and Karen Henderson are two successful Hong Kong women, whose old friendship brings them back together after many years to set up an archaeological project for Pearl's philanthropic organisation, the Hong Kong-based June Bowen Foundation.

Karen, an archaeologist acclaimed for her work in Southeast Asia, is injured during a robbery at the Hong Kong Archaeological Museum. One of a number of stolen objects is associated with Pearl Green's past.

The Museum Director, Albert Ho, is professionally jealous of Karen and convinces himself that Karen stole the artefact for Pearl. He hires a shady new arrival to Hong Kong – BJ Cresswell – to get it back. The lives of Pearl and her friends come under threat.

Pearl seeks help from three men: her father, the powerful Sir James Gates; the mysterious Hong Kong businessman, Yip Yee Koon; and the British former China watcher, Peter Benson. Together, they masterfully untangle the many threads of murder and intrigue that run through this story.