The Mao Case, Qiu Xiaolong

[meril.livejournal.com]

The Mao Case is the 6th in a crime fiction series about Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai police. The series is set during the 1990s and most of the books have mysteries involving the conflicted past of the previous three decades in China. This book is no exception. Chen is called to investigate a young woman who is the granddaughter of one of Mao's rumored mistresses; she may be in possession of personal materials involving Mao and the government wishes to have it in their hands before she sells it.

This isn't the best of the Inspector Chen books and it would really serve as a poor introduction to the series. It's too short and there's not enough character development. The side characters from previous books don't get enough screentime compared to their past appearances. I haven't read the first two yet; I started with the third. The best of them I've read so far is A Case of Two Cities because Qiu seems to have a far better grasp of St. Louis at this point than Shanghai.

(1/50 in my personal challenge list)

Comments

I agree with you about Qiu's grasp of St. Louis

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

He's been living here in my home town for a good while now, and writes with a good sense of place. I wish he'd set another novel here, perhaps with another character. It would be interesting to see him write about an expatriate detective.