Deep Roots - by Sung J Woo (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

After solving her first case, Siobhan O'Brien faces her biggest challenge yet - Thanksgiving!

With her lawyer boyfriend Craig in tow, Siobhan travels to Minneapolis to endure small talk with the extended O'Brien clan and chow down on some seriously delicious turkey and dressing. Everything's swell until her sister-in-law Gwen lets slip about her brother's frequent late-night meetings with his co-workers. Since Siobhan's next case is just a ferry ride from their house in Washington state, she asks for Siobhan's help.

Big sister is happy to oblige, though she's got her hands full. Hired by Phillip Ahn, a Korean artificial intelligence genius with his own personal island in the Pacific Northwest, Siobhan enters the strange, sequestered world of the uber rich, where Ahn, his wife, his two ex-wives, and his five children all live under the same gilded roof.

Ahn brings Siobhan to his estate because he swears that Duke, his youngest child and only son, is an impostor. Is Ahn crazy, or is Duke really someone else? And could it be possible that Sven's troubles are somehow linked to Ahn's? As Siobhan digs into these dangerous mysteries, she learns that family secrets have some very deep roots...

Review Quotes

"Funny and deliciously entertaining, featuring a witty, smart Korean-American-adoptee private investigator, a mysterious billionaire family whose son may have been replaced by an impostor, and an uber-swanky AI-fueled mansion in a private island. I couldn't turn the pages fast enough!"
- Angie Kim, Edgar-winning and internationally bestselling author of Miracle Creek and Happiness Falls

"Woo's absorbing tale, told with trademark wit and incisive modern commentary, unravels a family's twisted, layered secrets."
- Jennifer J. Chow, Agatha, Anthony, and Lefty-nominated author of Death by Bubble Tea

"From its engaging P.I. protagonist to its setting in a billionaire's mysterious hi-tech manse that pushes artificial intelligence to a whole new level, Deep Roots takes readers on a fabulously wild ride."
- Ellen Byron, USA Today bestselling author

"Deep Roots explores complex dynamics among identities, cultures, and technologies in an absorbing mystery with surprises at every turn."
- Cynthia Kuhn, author of the award-winning Lila Maclean Academic Mysteries and Starlit Bookshop Mysteries

"Clever, biting, and page-turning, Woo's PI series surely deserves future developments."
- Shelf Awareness

"With its engaging heroine, this sci-fi meets cozy, with a large dose of luxury fantasy thrown in, is a delight."
- Booklist

About the Author

Sung J. Woo's short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, PEN/Guernica, Financial Times, and Vox. He has written five novels, Lines, Deep Roots, Skin Deep, Love Love, and Everything Asian, which won the 2010 Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Literature Award. In 2022, his Modern Love essay from The New York Times was adapted by Amazon Studios for episodic television.