Nineteen-year-old cabbie Ed Kennedy has little in life to be proud of.

    His dad died of alcoholism*. He and his mom have little hope for success. He has little to do except share a run-down apartment with his faithful yet smelly* dog, drive his taxi, and play cards and drink with his amiable* yet similarly washed-up friends.

    Then, after he stops a bank robbery, Ed begins receiving anonymous* messages marked in code on playing cards in the mail, and almost immediately his life begins to swerve* off its beaten-down path.

    Usually the messages tell him to be at a certain address at a certain time. So with nothing to lose, Ed begins a series of missions as random as a toss of dice: sometimes daredevil*, sometimes heartwarmingly safe.

    He saves a woman from nightly rape by her husband. He brings a congregation* to an abandoned parish.

    Sometimes his task is easy and other times dangerous, and Ed’s search for meaning drives him to complete every task.

    But the true driving force behind the novel itself is readers’ knowledge that behind every turn hides the unknown presence — either good or evil — of the person or persons sending the messages.

    Together, these key elements fuse into a dark, almost film-noir atmosphere where Ed Kennedy stumbles onto a mystery — or series of mysteries — that could very well make or break his life. Both English and Chinese versions are available at jd.com.(SD-Agencies)