New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/31/2012 -- Crime thrillers have been a literary favorite for generations. Most are set in the early part of the 20th Century with a focus on Italian, African-American and Hispanic gangs. However, in a new book by Logan Lo, New York City’s Asian gang culture is put under spotlight.

Set in the 1990s, ‘The Men Made of Stone’ takes place during a decade that has been relatively untouched by previous crime thrillers. Safe to say, Logan Lo’s novel is unlike anything ever written before.

Synopsis:

At what point does justice become revenge? Against the backdrop of New York City’s Chinatown, THE MEN MADE OF STONE follows two young men as they ascend the ranks of the city’s criminal gangland and, in the process, discover that everyone has a different answer to that question.

One man, known only as C, with a pistol and penchant for violence, turns a small street gang into a formidable underworld player. With the likes of Danny the Priest, who kills with impunity, but never on a Sunday, and the equally violent Trigger, C seeks freedom from the tongs, the criminal syndicates that control the street gangs.

The other man is Jack, an ambitious new tong associate who also rises to a position of power. On opposite sides of the battle for control of Chinatown, it seems inevitable that the two men’s destinies will collide.

But nothing in Chinatown is ever as it seems.

The two share a secret that has led them on their paths, and when C meets the lovely and mysterious Sarah, and Jack reunites with his childhood sweetheart, Rachael, they learn that some choices come with unexpected consequences. As the violence escalates, the two men struggle to find their footing, until one death changes everything for them.

While THE MEN MADE OF STONE is an old-fashioned story of two victims struggling for justice, it’s also a taut crime thriller, blending fiction with the true-grit vérité of the city’s underbelly.

Just as The Godfather introduced an English-speaking audience in 1969 to Italian terms like caporegime and the Cosa Nostra, this organized-crime page-turner will acquaint modern readers with the Chinese dai-low and the Vietnamese anh-hai. Balanced by universal themes of love, friendship, and duty, THE MEN MADE OF STONE exposes the sordid, yet fascinating, world of Asian-American street gangs and the power brokers who pull their strings.

Since its release, the book has garnered a consistent string of rave reviews.

The San Francisco Book Review wrote that “The Men Made of Stone has enough going for it that, while reading, I [thought of] A Clockwork Orange. Both have a strong and unyielding hum of ultra-violence. Both have outbursts of humanity and humor that stand out sharply from the hum. Those breaks become gasps of welcome air to parched lungs, and this is not an effect one runs into in humdrum, grind 'em out action thrillers. ... A book not for the weak of heart, but one that will please the strong of mind."

The novel also earned a Five-Star Vine Voice Review from David Hall who said that it was a “Damn Good Novel!” and has averaged an impressive five-stars across its many reviews, Lo’s work is praised for its captivating action, intricate characters and its ability to immerse the reader deep in the hearts and minds of both the gang members and their victims.

In short, it’s a crime thriller that bucks the literary trend to great success.

‘The Men Made of Stone’, published by Grifters, is available on all readers including Amazon at http://amzn.to/YZwoVN, Barnes and Noble at http://tinyurl.com/cdndy9s, and the the iTune Store at http://tinyurl.com/c5936u2.

About Logan Lo, in his own words:
I’m a native New Yorker and live with my wife and a plant named Harold near Central Park. And professionally, I'm an intellectual property attorney.

But there's this saying that we are what we constantly do. If that's the case, first and foremost, I'm a collector and teller of stories. For example, I'm a book reviewer at the New York Journal of Books and have had a fairly well-trafficked blog at loganlo.com for years.

So, while the technology of expression and consumption may change, in the end, it's still the basic need to tell and be told a good story. That’s what I do.