The lives of two Chinese men converge in the exotic country of England in travel writer Simon Lewis’ excellent mystery debut.

“Bad Traffic” (Scribner, $25) works as the mystery equivalent of “The Odyssey” as both men strive to get home; out of their comfort zones they are strangers in a strange land. “Bad Traffic” explores cultural differences, racism, classism and immigration. Throw in a plot line about human trafficking, and you have a rip-roaring action tale.

Chinese Police Inspector Ma Jian is cynical, tough cop who’s not above taking. Admittedly, he’s a poor father who is glad his daughter Wei Wei, with whom he is not close, is studying at Leeds University in England as it makes it easier for him to keep a young mistress. But when Wei Wei makes a late-night distress call before being disconnected, he doesn’t think twice. He books the next flight to England, even though he doesn’t speak English, knows no one there and isn’t even sure where his daughter lives.

Ding Ming, 19, and his new bride, Little Ye, traveled from China to England “inside a sealed box in a container truck” for three months. They paid dearly to come to the United Kingdom where he could improve his English, perhaps get a job as a teacher and make a better life for themselves. It doesn’t dawn on him until he is on English soil and separated from his wife by the men who organized the travel ordeal that he has just bought himself a life of slavery and that his wife may be forced into prostitution.

When the jaded Ma Jian and the innocent Ding Ming meet, it’s not an easy union. Both are suspicious of the other, yet each needs the other. Ma Jian knows how to get things done and isn’t above using violence; Ding Ming speaks English.

Lewis doesn’t miss a beat as he allows these two characters to mature as men and to discover skills they didn’t know they had.

Lewis, who has written several Rough Guides and the backpacking novel “Go,” shows England through the eyes of scared outsiders.

To these two Chinese nationals, England is a complex, frightening and odd country with unimaginable danger around every corner.