The Chinese Bell Murders - Softcover

Van Gulik, Robert

4.08

1,717 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226848620 ISBN 13: 9780226848624

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1977

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The Chinese Bell Murders describes the Judge's exploits in the tribunal of Poo-yang early in his career. He has one case left over from his predecessor—the brutal rape-murder of Pure Jade, the daughter of Butcher Hsai who lived on Half Moon Street. Her lover has been accused and is on the verge of being convicted, but Judge Dee senses that all is not right and sets out with his lieutenants to find the real murderer.

"So scrupulously in the classic Chinese manner yet so nicely equipped with everything to satisfy the modern reader."—New York Times

Robert Van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. He drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially from the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century.

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About the Author:

Robert Van Gulik was born in the Netherlands in 1910. He was educated at the Universities of Leyden and Utrecht, and served in the Dutch diplomatic service in China and Japan for many years. His interest in Asian languages and art led him to the discovery of Chinese detective novels and to the historical character of Judge Dee, famous in ancient Chinese annals as a scholar-magistrate. Van Gulik subsequently began writing the Judge Dee series of novels that have so captivated mystery readers ever since. He died of cancer in 1967.

Review:

"Taken together, the Judge Dee series gives a unique and entertaining look at China in the age when Buddhism was first taking root. Those interested in ordinary--and sometimes extraordinary--life in the Tang dynasty, and anyone who just loves a good mystery, will find much here to enjoy." (Dan Zigmond Tricycle)

"When you're ready to cuddle up with a good book over the holidays, you will find no better companion than Dee. . . .A historical figure from seventh century Tang dynasty China, he comes to your living room or airplane seat courtesy of one Robert van Gulik . . . who penned a series of novels fictionalizing the exploits of what you might well think of as a Chinese Sherlock Holmes. . . . If you have an interest in ancient China or simply wish to better understand that country today, van Gulik's Judge Dee novels are especially attractive, but even without that dimension, they are truly addicting. As with any truly great crime fiction, the fifteen-odd novels and additional short stories reveal the great and true of the human condition along with the loathsome and the petty." (Arthur Rosenfeld Huffington Post)

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