A thrilling novel about two people stranded under mysterious circumstances in the South China Sea, battling the memories of the crimes that haunt them.

A U.S. Navy intelligence officer, Jess is serving on an aircraft carrier (the first woman ever to do so) until she gets assigned a top-secret mission. When the mission goes wrong, she's rescued by Philippine Navy sailors who've been strategically moored for far too long. Things get complicated when their unhinged leader declares Jess an angel sent to save them from their disastrous mission. But Jess is no angel; she's done horrible things and she's desperate for absolution.

The only person who can give it to her is Zi Shan. Exiled by the Communist Party of China to a coral sprawl called Mischief Reef, he's been tasked with turning the reef into an island by dredging sand from the ocean floor. Each day he follows a series of bizarre directives, desperate to one day be allowed to return to his daughter. But when Jess washes up on his shore, everything turns to chaos.

Inspired by real but re-imagined events in the late 1980s, the mysteries of fate unfold dramatically in Nine Dash Line. What brough Jess and Zi Shan to Mischief Reef? What binds them together? And how in the world will they ever get home?

Emily Saso is an author of surrealist fiction. She supports her writing habit with a marketing job at a bank and blogs about her literary trials and triumphs at--egoburn.blogspot.ca. The Weather Inside is her debut novel.

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"Emily Saso’s thriller fuses Tiananmen, sexual harassment, and the global struggle for hegemony in the South China Seas. By turns lyrical and mystical, Nine Dash Line brings geopolitics to a human level through two protagonists in parallel hostile environments: Jess Toth, the only woman on an US naval destroyer, and Zi Shan, the only man building an islet foothold for China in disputed territory."

Jan Wong

"Nine Dash Line is a riveting page-turner, part thriller and nail-biting tale of survival as well as a deft exploration of U.S. and Chinese covert operations for dominance in the South China Sea. While the true historical events are re-imagined, they are rooted in Saso's astute psychological studies of actual institutions and public figures. Saso's background in international relations and security studies shines on the page. The result is a smart, engrossing and darkly entertaining novel for our times."

Joanna Chiu