Poets & Murder

Judge Dee is the guest of his fellow magistrate Lo Kwan-choong who is also a dabbler in the art of poetry. A rich man, Lo's official residence is in the palace of the former Ninth Prince who was executed years ago for plotting against the Emperor. The banquet Lo is giving has a small but select guest list. Five illustrious poets, four men and a woman, all literary stars of the day feast on fine food, recite snatches of poetry and toast their host. But during the fireworks display the dancer hired to perform for the company is murdered. Judge Dee knows that one of the guests must be guilty, but which one? He discovers that the crime actually has roots in the old plot against the Emperor... This lovely atmospheric mystery has a simple but well-executed plot. I find myself returning to this slender volume time after time, not so much for the story as for the sheer aesthetic pleasure in contemplating the passion, poetry and literary atmosphere of ancient China.

As far as plot goes, this book isn't all that great. Van Gulik wrote his Judge Dee stories in his spare time and apparantly didn't have a lot of it. What makes this book worth reading, though, is the impecable recreation of classical Chinese society and Confucian social structure. That being kept in mind, this book is a worthy read.