book review: the golden gate

By Ashley Peng, 2026

Published 10/13/23

I’m not willing to go so far as to call myself a detective, but I would be lying if I said that I haven’t predicted the ending of a murder mystery a couple of times. In Amy Chua’s “The Golden Gate,” the cliche of being on the edge of your seat or questioning everything rang true all the way to the very end. The true genius in Chua’s debut novel comes not only from the tangled web of the mystery, though. It instead is the hidden gems of history and social commentary, brilliantly weaved together with the threads of murder. While each hidden layer of the story could not have been anticipated, so couldn’t have the casually shaped facts on early California history, Madame Chiang-Shek, Japanese internment camps, and the socioeconomic and political fluctuations of the San Francisco area by the Golden Gate Bridge. Chua’s cast of characters draw upon different historical references, each highlighting or referencing a unique figure of the time. 

By writing such a mystery with such interwoven pieces, Chua brings out the reader’s hidden insecurities by crafting characters of such humanlike qualities, evoking the morally gray landscape of mankind. The reliability of the story's narrators makes us question not only the circumstances of the story, but when combined with sly social commentary, makes the reader question who they are, what they stand for, and whether they are right to do so.

Ultimately, Amy Chua’s fictional debut is a success, deserving to be read by readers of all genres. Chua remarkably combines the elements of a classic murder mystery and a story of people, places, and things, all of which play a much more important role in who we are than we might realize.