When Red Is Black

The book arrived in like new condition. My husband very much enjoyed reading When Red is Black.

I am not very discerning about him because I think all his books are wonderful. while the culture is so different than mine, you can feel real empathy for the detective.

In this detective novel, Qiu Xiaolong gives a detailed account of the tragic effects of the Cultural Revolution on ordinary -- and extraordinary -- people living in Shanghai in the 1990's. I could not solve the mystery, but I adored the poetry-spouting detective (who is probably quite a bit like the author) so much that I ordered Qiu's anthology of Tang and Song poetry.

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!

Anthony-award winner Xiaolong's third Inspector Chen procedural continues to explore the ups and downs of life in turbulent Shanghai. Yu, Chen's subordinate, has just had his promised apartment snatched away - perhaps as a slap to Chen whose rapid rise has sidestepped his own boss. Yu, with his wife and son, will continue to occupy one small room. The murder plot also carries political complications. The victim, Yin Lige, was known as a dissident writer for a novel she wrote about her politically doomed love for a "Black," or intellectual, poet Yang. A Red Guard in her youth, Yin was then denounced and sent to a reeducation farm during the Cultural Revolution, where she met Yang. Her book sank without notice until American interest in publishing it labeled her a dissident. She died in a tiny room partitioned off a landing in an old dilapidated Western style house - the type of house that, ironically, is making a comeback in an expensive real estate project evoking the heyday of pre-revolution Shanghai. In fact, Chen has been recruited to translate a 50-page prospectus for the Triad-connected developer, who is paying him an amount equivalent to 30 years of his police salary, bonuses included. This leaves Yu in charge of the investigation. The background, which incorporates Chinese love poetry and the subtle gradations of noodles and eels, as well as political fencing, class striations, economic upheavals and the uncertainty of change, provides plenty of murder suspects from the past and present. And if Xiaolong stints a bit on the mystery, she more than compensates with her fascinating portrait of a society in flux.