A Case of Two Cities

Elequently written with Tang poetry interspersed and complex representations of the conflicts found in today's China. Qiu is crtiical and also loves his country and people.

Another great story about detective Chen. the writing offers wonderful detail about life in modern day Chins. Melinda

Qiu Xiaolong writes in a way that is so wonderful on several levels: 1. He is a superb writer. 2. These are very good mysteries/crime stories. No pat endings and detailed characters with complex motives and relationships. 3. This view into modern life in China and the effects on its people of that nations recent history are not to be missed. Nowhere will you find such a detailed and eye-opening look at "real life" in China unless you have friends from there!

This is the fourth Inspector Chen novel in what is becoming a favorite guilty pleasure of mine. As I have mentioned in previous reviews I am no big Mystery book fan. However, Xiaolong has been able to infuse his investigations in settings with enough political and cultural information as Modern china transitions to capitalism in the 1990s. On one web page I noticed the book was tentatively titles "Red Rats, A Case of Two Cities" which I think would have been a better title. Why? Because this time Chen is assigned a highly political case of corruption where the old corrupt guard (Red Rats as Old Hudson calls them) are living off bribes and favoritism. (Interesting enough, Chen has his own network of friends too. Does he see paying a visit to a friend who owns a restaurant as stepping stone to more major corruption on his part?) Chen is to investigate Xing Xing who left (escaped) leaving the country for wealthy communities in Southern California leaving behind a half brother no one can find. The book opens with the last officer in charge of this investigation found murdered in highly embarrassing circumstances. Does Chen understand the danger he is in as he is assigned the case? The case, like all of Chen's takes a back seat to his daily living, coping for example with is elderly mother, and his real desire to be a poet as he plods from interview to interview. And when he gets a clue the informant does not call him back, she has been killed. Then out of no where he is assigned to head a delegation of authors to the United States where in St. Louis he meets up with US Marshall Catherine Rhone (who visited China in the second installment, "Loyal Character Dancer". What I thought was a bit heavy handed in that prior book works much better here as "Two Cities" is the best of the books since the first, most excellent, "Death of a Chinese Heroin". Chen's partner Yu ( whole series could be written about detective Yu and his wife and father) is left along in Shanghai to investigate while Chen is in the United States. I do wish Xiaolong would expand on some of the minor characters as he did in the first book. And perhaps Xiaolong needs to begin to have Chen reveal more of him self and what toll these cases are having on his personality and character. Did he for example really expect the relationship with Rhone to go someplace romantically? How does this affect him as he grows older? Does he have the desire for a private life? At the moment he caught between the old China and the new China and he understands both oh so well. I will be in line for the next Inspector Chen novel and would hope that Qiu Xiaolong would attend next years Los Angeles Times book festival at UCLA so I could meet him and hear more of his experience with this series as it is being translated into Chinese for the modern Chinese reader.

The anonymous call to the Fujian Police Bureau sent Sergeant Lou Xiangdong to the Inebriating Money and Intoxicating Gold karaoke center that serves as a sexual service locale for the corrupt officials and businessmen. There he is shocked by who he finds murdered, Fujian Special Squad Police Detective Hua Ting. Though he wants to believe that one of his mentors when he started was clean, Hua postulates whether the highly regarded dead cop was on the take? Retired Comrade Secretary Zhao Yan of the Central party Chinese Discipline Committee assigns a major business corruption case to Shanghai Police Bureau Chief Inspector Chen Cao, explaining that the top gun Xing Xing already fled to the States. Comrade Zhao wants Xing's gang still flourishing at the cost of the country to be stopped. As Chen investigates, he ties the Hua homicide to the corruption scandal as the late sleuth had found ties between officials of the party and the self-exiled business mogul. Soon, Chen realizes he was selected not to solve the case, but because the party VIPs thought his reputation for honesty would give credibility to an investigation intended to fail. In his fourth appearance (see WHEN RED IS BLACK and DEATH OF A RED HEROINE) Inspector Chen remains an honest, diligent and dedicated cop trying to insure justice is served while doing so under an oppressive government in which the truth is only what the Communist Party claims it to be. The story line is action-packed as Chen knows the so-called blank check Zhao gives him to weed out corruption at the highest levels of the government is a sham, but that does not stop him from following all the key threads to wherever they lead including America. THE CASE OF TWO CITIES is a superior police procedural. Harriet Klausner