The notorious gangster Lai Changxing started out as an illiterate farmer, but, in the tumult of China’s burgeoning economy, he seized the opportunity to remake himself as a bandit king. A newly minted billionaire of outsize personality and even greater appetites, he was a living legend who eventually ran afoul of authorities. Journalist Oliver August set out to profile the fugitive Lai. On his quest, he encountered a highly entertaining series of criminals and oddball entrepreneurs—and acquired unique insight into the paradoxes of modern China. Part crime caper, part travelogue, part trenchant cultural analysis, August’s page-turning account captures China’s giddy vibe and its darker vulnerabilities. The New York Times praised it as “a colorfully digressive book capitalizing on the thought that understanding the new China is essential to understanding a criminal who could successfully exploit it . . . A year before [it] was due to be published, a handler from the Chinese foreign ministry told Mr. August that he had enjoyed the book. You needn’t be a spy to agree.”