When Fiction and Reality Intersect
Friday, October 30th, 2009Mystery novelist, Michael Connelly was doing final research in Hong Kong in preparation of promoting his new novel “Nine Dragons”, when he learned of a real life mystery eerily similar to the one in his book. Unlike his book, this real mystery has not been solved.
The saying goes that life imitates art. But that’s the last thing you want when you write crime fiction. You never want to see the things you write about mirrored back to you in real life.
Chungking Mansions is a well-known place to many travelers to Asia. It is sort of a modern Casablanca, a crossroads of the world. It is several cut-rate hotels housed in one large and old building, and all of it above a world bazaar where dozens of languages are spoken, and food and other comfort items from almost any country in Asia can be found and purchased. It is the kind of place…where I checked my back repeatedly when I walked through while researching the book.
The real mystery as well as the fictional one began in the Chunking Mansions
Ani Ashekian was a veteran traveler who enjoyed solo journeys from Toronto, Canada. She came to Hong Kong after visiting mainland China and stayed in a hotel at the Chungking Mansions.
Ani has not been seen since November 10, 2008.
Read the whole story here
