Counterfeit: A Novel

Ava Wong, a Stanford educated Chinese-American lawyer finds herself in a pickle. Her husband has required both of them to authorize expenditures on their account. She is on a trip to China and doesn't want to have her dirty laundry aired. She contacts an old roommate and finds some quick money by helping out with a counterfeit ring. This gives her money of her own. The two women become more and more involved. They import counterfeit luxury bags from China to the US. They will buy the "real" bag from a retail store, then return the fake for a refund. Then they can sell the real one online. They end up getting a number of others to help them with the operation. However, it starts to unravel. Stores identify the fakes and a detective infiltrates the operation.

Ava also has troubles at home. She is struggling to get her child into a nursery school. (And struggles more when he gets expelled for crying.) The marriage is on the rocks. She feels that she has not accomplished what others have.

She eventually confesses her role in the operation in order to get a lighter sentence. (She made a convincing case with a strong alabi, but was not 100% truthful.) The kingpin ends up taking the fall. He was arrested when flying to the US. At first, he and his influencer daughter were seen by the Chinese public as "victims". But when their luxurious lifestyles are exposed and companies cut off contracts in China, the tides turn. Ava, on the other hand got a taste of counterfeiting and started a different operation.

The business/crime operation is set in a realistic California Asian-American culture. The differences between "mainland Chinese" and "American Chinese" are called out. The SFO Asiana plane crash and college admission and SAT scandals play a role. We also get an interesting twist on the "beneficiaries" of the SAT cheating rings.