Death of a Red Heroine (Soho Crime)

The best detective/crime novel I've come across latley, this book has it all. Great characters, interesting plot, excelent depiction of life in Shanghai and of Chinese politics/life generally. The plot did drag a bit at the begining, but picked itself up fairly quickly, and ended up sucking my life for a few days. Very noir/dark feel, lots of things to think about just below the surface. What...more

The best detective/crime novel I've come across latley, this book has it all. Great characters, interesting plot, excelent depiction of life in Shanghai and of Chinese politics/life generally. The plot did drag a bit at the begining, but picked itself up fairly quickly, and ended up sucking my life for a few days. Very noir/dark feel, lots of things to think about just below the surface. What else can one ask of a detective story?   hide

great for armchair tourists

Great first novel in a series featuring a cop/poet (yes, a bit like Inspector Dagliesh) in post-Mao China. This allows Qiu to indulge in his deep knowledge of Tang poetry, and if you have some knowledge of the poems he quotes, you will get extra insight into the characters and events.

mama-huhu

His first Inspector Chen mystery. Great intro to life in modern Shanghai.

I'm no sinophile, but i kinda have a thing for 1930s, pre-WWII Shanghai -- the qi paos, the music. Fast forward to the post-"Deng reforms" era, and one finds a Shanghai big on free enterprise market places and short on housing. Shanghai has changed, but it's still Shanghai. It is there at the crossroads of old and new that we find Inspector Chen, a young party cadre, but steeped in Confucian...more

I'm no sinophile, but i kinda have a thing for 1930s, pre-WWII Shanghai -- the qi paos, the music. Fast forward to the post-"Deng reforms" era, and one finds a Shanghai big on free enterprise market places and short on housing. Shanghai has changed, but it's still Shanghai. It is there at the crossroads of old and new that we find Inspector Chen, a young party cadre, but steeped in Confucian thought and classical poetry. His investigation begins as a "cold case", but it soon leads him to step dangerously on the toes of party bigwigs, and takes him far from home to Guangzhou, where he is tested by pleasures of the flesh and stomach. Will his ideal justice, blind and impervious, prevail, inspite of the Party? A perspective on the common Chinese and their rulers in contemporary China not to be missed.   hide

This book made me hungry.

This is a crime novel for those who love crime novels, but who have overdosed and thus have started to feel that you "have heard it all before" every time you open up a new one. This book adds new value and color to the plot and once you have read this one, you will feel grateful that there are more books written in the same series, awaiting you. The plot is set in Shanghai in the 90ies and it...more

This is a crime novel for those who love crime novels, but who have overdosed and thus have started to feel that you "have heard it all before" every time you open up a new one. This book adds new value and color to the plot and once you have read this one, you will feel grateful that there are more books written in the same series, awaiting you. The plot is set in Shanghai in the 90ies and it describes China of Today with it's strange mixture of ancient culture, rapid growth, remains of communism and the Asian manner of reasoning. The writer claims to be inspired by Swedish criminal writers Sjöwall & Wahle with their socio-realistic portraits of society, and that might very well be the case. Wonderful with writers that bring more than forensics and police work into crime fiction.   hide

a wonderful who done it book, and lots more, if you want to get an inside look into China in the 21st centry, this is a must read Superb woh done it