AUTHOR Grace Chia writes about murder, migrants and the Mafia in “The Arches of Gerrard Street,” where Molly, a small-town girl from Malaysia goes to London’s Chinatown to uncover the truth behind the tragedy that befell her childhood sweetheart.

The shooting of her childhood friend in London’s Chinatown has led her from Batu Pahat in Malaysia to the British capital to find answers. Who murdered him? And why?

She soon becomes embroiled in a web of deceit spun in an immigrant enclave shrouded in secrecy as her past catches up on her.

The new Penguin Random House SEA book is a coming-of-age novel about a young girl from a small town thrust into a big city finding her way back to herself.

Barrie Sherwood, author of “Speed of Lightness,”

“‘The Arches of Gerrard Street’ reconfigures the tropes of the thriller to deliver a stinging commentary on the chilling trade at the book’s heart. Chia side-steps your narrative expectations and surprises you with tender affirmations of her characters’ humanity,” Barrie Sherwood, author of “Speed of Lightness,” says of the novel.

Chia graduated with an English Literature and Theatre Studies major at NUS, with an MA from Goldsmiths College, UOL. Despite being a mother of two kids with a full-time job, she has three published poetry collections under her belt.

She has lived outside Singapore for 13 years. She wrote for The Peak, Young Parents, Today’s Parents, Wine & Dine and Nautique, among others and adjunct lecturer at NTU and DigiPen-SIT.

She was the inaugural NAC-NTU Writer-in-Residence, and have since done residencies at Toji Cultural Centre, Seoul Art Space Yeonhui and Uni of Macau. Her most recent collaboration was with a Dutch photographer based in HK on a book titled “Hong Kong Garage Dogs” where she wrote all the haikus accompanying the book.