It's summertime in New York City's Chinatown. While others are celebrating the nation's bicentennial, NYC police detective Robert Chow is hot on the trail of some snakeheads—smugglers of human laborers—who might know something about two dead undocumented workers found under the Brooklyn Bridge underpass. Ed Lin's alluring new novel, Snakes Can't Run (Minotaur), is the second in his Robert Chow series, which began with This is a Bust. "A brilliant, economical character, setting and period piece. Lin's juicy, dialogue-heavy sophomore effort is rich, flavorful, and humane." - Booklist. Also reading tonight is Seattle writer Soya Jung—a onetime International Examiner journalist who has long worked with politically-engaged non-profit and public interest groups, and is a founding member of Sahngnoksoo (a local organization of progressive Koreans and Korean Americans).