My name is Lily Wong, which may seem odd to you since my mother is Hong Kong Chinese and my father is North Dakota Norwegian. But when cultures collide, all sorts of unusual things can happen.

By standard American custom, I should have been named Lily Knudsen, which would have raised a lot of eyebrows. But Baba—that’s what I call my dad—wanted to connect my sister and me to our Chinese heritage (which he did) and appease Gung-Gung (which he did not). Suffice it to say that Gung-Gung still hasn’t forgiven Ma for disobeying his wishes, and the pressure is on for me, as Ma’s only surviving daughter, to fulfill her obligations.

What happened to Rose? That’s a tragic tale I can’t bring myself to share on a beautiful day like this, nor can I worry about filial piety when there’s a steamer full of dim sum waiting in Baba’s kitchen.

Did I forget to mention that I live above my Norwegian father’s Chinese restaurant? It comes in handy since I burn up a ridiculous amount of calories running and biking across Los Angeles. You see, much to Ma’s chagrin, I much prefer mass transit, rideshares, and my own athleticism to sitting on my butt in traffic and wasting precious dollars on parking. It’s expensive as heck to live in Los Angeles, even with free room and board.

But please don’t misunderstand: I’m not a freeloading millennial.

I work for Aleisha’s Refuge, rescuing and protecting women and children from violent situations. I pick up extra cash as a web consultant for small business owners—improving SEO, writing blogs, and making sure they don’t do anything to damage their brands or put themselves at risk. The money I earn goes to upgrading my weapons and surveillance equipment—and, yes, I have a lot of cool toys. But as a highly trained ninja warrior protector, my greatest weapons are my mind, my spirit, and my ninja training.

Which reminds me, it’s time to bike across town and train with Sensei—right after I answer this text from Alisha: Kateryna called. Dmitry beat her up again. She’s ready to go.

Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to be rude, but when Aleisha texts, I have to answer. And, if I’m going extract a Ukrainian trophy wife and her seven-year-old son out of an abuser’s home, I’ll need a faster, roomier ride than a bike.

“Hey, Baba. Can I borrow the delivery car?”

“Before the lunch rush?” He slides a wok full of chow fun onto a platter and shakes his head. “Can’t spare the delivery car, but borrow my Audi, why dontcha? It’ll get you there and back, quick as a bunny.”

He was right. But if he’d known the dangerous chain of events that my little excursion would spark, he would have shipped me to Gung-Gung in Hong Kong.

You can read more about Lily in The Ninja Daughter, the first book in the NEW “Lily Wong” thriller series, released November 5, 2019.

The Ninja Daughter is an action-packed thriller about a Chinese-Norwegian modern-day ninja with Joy Luck Club family issues who fights the Los Angeles Ukrainian mob, sex traffickers, and her own family to save two desperate women and an innocent child.

After her sister is raped and murdered, Lily Wong dedicates her life and ninja skills to the protection of women. But her mission is complicated. Not only does she live above the Chinese restaurant owned by her Norwegian father and inspired by the recipes of her Chinese mother, but she has to hide her true self from her Hong Kong tiger mom who is already disappointed in her daughter’s less than feminine ways, and who would be horrified to know what she had become.

But when a woman and her son she escorted safely to an abused women’s shelter return home to dangerous consequences, Lily is forced to not only confront her family and her past, but team up with a mysterious―and very lethal―stranger to rescue them.

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Meet the author
Tori Eldridge is a Honolulu-born thriller writer. Her gritty debut novel, The Ninja Daughter, draws from her own Chinese-Norwegian heritage, her experience as a 5th degree black belt in To-Shin Do ninjutsu, and thirty-five years living in Los Angeles.

To learn more about Tori, visit her website at torieldridge.com.

All comments are welcomed.