A Case of Two Cities: An Inspector Chen Novel - Hardcover

Xiaolong, Qiu

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312359853 ISBN 13: 9780312359850

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2006

Synopsis

Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau is summoned by an official of the party to take the lead in a corruption investigation - one where the principle figure and his family have long since fled to the United States and beyond the reach of the Chinese government. But he left behind the organization and his partners-in-crime, and Inspector Chen is charged to uncover those responsible and act as necessary to end the corruption ring. In a twisting case that takes him from Shanghai, all the way to the U.S., reuniting him with his previous cohort from the U.S. Marshall's service - Inspector Catherine Rhon.
At once a compelling crime novel and a insightful, moving portrayal of everyday life, The Emperor's Sword is the next installment in the critically acclaimed, award-wining Inspector Chen series.

About this title

About the Author

Qiu Xiaolong was born and raised in Shanghai, moving to the U.S. in 1988. He is the author of three previous novels featuring Inspector Chen. His work has won the Anthony Award and been a finalist for the Edgar Award (Death of a Red Heroine) and has been chosen as a Booksense selection (When Red is Black). He lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Reviews

Starred Review. Chinese expatriate Qiu's gripping fourth Inspector Chen novel (after 2004's When Red Is Black) captures an honest detective's struggle to be true to his professional ideals under a repressive regime. The Communist Party leadership appears to be vigorously investigating rampant corruption among the profligate power elite during China's economic reforms of the recent past. After the head of the Fujian special case squad is murdered in sordid circumstances, Chen Cao of the Shanghai police bureau discovers that the dead man had been probing a wealthy businessman, Xing Xing, who fled to the United States to escape prosecution. Chen himself is then given the highest authority to carry on the investigation, which takes him to the U.S., but he soon realizes he's not meant to succeed. Chen stands in a class with Martin Cruz Smith's Russian investigator, Arkady Renko, and P.D. James's Scotland Yard inspector, Adam Dalgliesh. (Dec.)
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Whether set in the U.S., Europe, or Asia, crime novels offer a lens with which to look at societies and the dynamics that shape them--and few locales can offer the kind of dynamics that Shanghai can, a city being transformed by the introduction of market economics. Beijing assigns Detective (and poet) Chen Cao of the Shanghai police the task of investigating Xing Xing, who has amassed a fortune while corrupting various party officials, but the detective has no sooner begun his investigation than he is told to lead a delegation of writers to the U.S. for a cultural exchange. Concerned that Xing may have fled to the U.S and requested asylum, Chen agrees to lead the delegation. Plot is secondary, or even tertiary, here. Character, poetry, insights into Chinese society and culture, and food all come before story in this unusual and compelling crime novel, the fourth in a fascinating series. Thomas Gaughan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One 

Chief Inspector Chen Cao, of the Shanghai Police Bureau, was invited to a mega bathhouse, Birds Flying, Fishes Jumping, on a May afternoon.
 
According to Lei Zhenren, editor of Shanghai Morning, they would have all their worries luxuriously washed away there. "How much concern do you have? / It is like spring flood / of a long river flowing east. This ultramodern bathhouse is really unique. Characteristics of the Chinese brand of socialism. You won't see anything else like it in the world."
 
Lei knew how to persuade, having quoted for the poetry-liking chief inspector three lines from Li Yu, the Southern Tang emperor poet. "Characteristics of the Chinese brand of socialism" was a political catchphrase, which carried a discordant connotation, especially in the context of the unprecedented materialistic transformation sweeping over the city of Shanghai. As it happened, Chen had just read about the bathhouse in an English publication:
 
 
Every weekend night, about two thousand Chinese and several dozen foreigners gather together naked at Niaofei Yuyao--a gigantic bathhouse, where the masses soak in tubs of milk, sweat in the "fire jade heat room," watch movies, and swim in the pool. It's public and legal. After a round of miniature golf (clothing required), you can get a massage (clothing removed) and watch a Vegas-style show (the audience in pajamas, the performers in less than pajamas) . . .
 
 
It took Chen two or three minutes to figure out the exact wording from the Chinese phonetics niaofei yuyao--"birds flying and fishes jumping." The name of the bathhouse actually came from an ancient proverb: The sea so wide for fishes to jump, the sky so high for birds to fly, which meant figuratively "infinite possibilities." Perhaps too pompous a name for a bathhouse, yet a plausible allusion to its size and service. So he responded, "Such a bath may be too luxurious, Lei. I now have a hot shower in my own apartment, you know."
 
"Come on, Comrade Chief Inspector Chen. If you flash your business card, the owner of the bathhouse will come rushing over, barefoot, to welcome you in. A high-flying Party cadre, and a well-published poet to boot, you deserve a good break. Health is the capital for making socialist revolution, as Chairman Mao said long ago."
 
Chen had known Lei for years, first through the Writers' Association, to which both had belonged. Lei had majored in Chinese literature, and Chen, in Western literature. But early on, they had both been state-assigned to their respective jobs, regardless of their own interests. Starting out as an entry-level business reporter, Lei had since enjoyed a steady rise. When Shanghai Morning was founded the previous year, he was appointed the editor-in-chief. Like other newspapers, Shaghai Morning was still under the ideological control of the government but responsible for its own financial welfare. So Lei made every effort to turn the newspaper into a more readable one, instead of one simply full of polished political clichés. The efforts had paid off, and the newspaper grew rapidly popular, almost catching up with the Wenhui Daily in its circulation.
 
Lei talked about treating Chen--in celebration of the newspaper's success. It was an invitation Chen found difficult to decline. For all these years, Lei had made a point of publishing Chen's poems in his newspapers.
 
But he could not be too cautious, Chen thought, in his position, in the days of guanxi--connections spreading all over the city like a gigantic web. "My treat, Lei," he said. "Last time you bought me a great lunch at Xinya. It should be my turn now."
 
"Tell you what, Chen. I'm writing about the latest Shanghai entertainments. No fun for me to go there alone. So you're doing me a favor. Business expense, of course."
 
"Well, no private room or private service, then."
 
"You don't have to tell me that. It's not a good idea for people like you or me to be seen in those private rooms. Particularly in the heat of another anticorruption campaign."
 
"Yes, it's the headlines again," Chen said, "in your newspaper."
 
 
Niaofei Yuyao turned out to be a six-story sprawling building on Jumen Road. The dazzling lobby, lit with crystal chandeliers, struck Chen more like a five-star American hotel. The entrance fee was two hundred yuan per person, with additional charges for services requested inside, a stolid manager explained, giving each of them a shining silver bracelet with a number attached to it.
 
"Like dim sum," Lei said, "you'll pay at the end of it, with all the services added to your number."
 
A reporterlike young man sidled over, carrying a camera with a long zoom sticking out like a gun. The manager rose to wave his hand in a flurry: "Pictures are not allowed here."
 
Chen was surprised. "If the picture is going to appear in a newspaper, like yours," he said in a whisper, "it may bring in more business."
 
"Well, a large tree brings in a gusty wind against itself," Lei commented, changing into plastic slippers. "This bathhouse doesn't need any more free advertisement, or the city government may feel obliged to check into its incredible business."
 
The pool area was the size of three or four soccer fields, not including the area for women. The water of three large pools shimmered green in the soft light. Majestic marble statues and fountains stood in each of them, imitations of ancient Roman palaces, except for an impressive array of modern water massage appliances along the poolsides. There were also special tubs with signs such as Beer, Ginseng, Milk, and Herbs. The brownish froth in the beer tub formed a sharp contrast to the white ripples over the milk tub. Chen looked into a gauze bag floating in the ginseng tub--expensive if the thick roots it contained were genuine, though he was not so sure of its medical benefit in the hot bathwater.
 
"These tubs are supposed to be effective," Lei said with a grin.
 
"And very expensive too."
 
"The pools alone could have cost millions. A gamble on the boost the WTO accession will deliver to Shanghai--an economic restructuring with waves of overseas capital inflows. China is currently the second-largest destination for foreign investment after the U.S. Soon it will be the largest."
 
Lei was taking an MBA class in the evening. For the new newspaper, he had to know things beyond his major in Chinese literature years earlier.
 
"So you're writing an article about the bathhouse?"
 
"Not just about this place, but the latest entertainment trends in general. Eat, drink, bathe, sleep, and whatnot. A middle class is rising up fast in China. They have money, and they need to know how to spend money. As an editor, I have to write what they want to read."
 
"Indeed, pools of wine, woods of flesh," Chen said, echoing a classical description about the decaying Shang dynasty palace, as he stepped into a steaming hot pool.
 
"Oh, much, much more," Lei chuckled in high spirits, "like the Winter Palace in Russia, except it's so warm here, like the spring water. Or like in the late Roman empire."
 
Chen reclined against the poolside, the water massaging his back and purring as if with a collective contentment, including his. He tried to recall the name of the poet Lei had quoted, but without success.
 
"What are you thinking, Chen?"
 
"Nothing--my mind is relaxing in a total blank, as you suggested."
 
"Take it easy, Chen, with your new position in the city congress, and with your name as a best-selling poet."
 
To all appearances, Chen had been moving up steadily. His new membership in the Shanghai People's Congress was seen as another step toward his succeeding Party Secretary Li Guohua in the police bureau. But Chen was not so sure about it. The congress was known as a political rubber stamp, and thus city congressman was more of an honorary title. Possibly a compromise more than anything else, Chen knew, for quite a few hard-liners in the Party opposed his further promotion in the bureau, on the ground of his being too liberal.
 
It was true, however, that his poetry collection had enjoyed unexpected success. Poetry makes no money and, in a money-oriented age, its publication was nothing short of a miracle. And it was actually selling well.
 
His thoughts were interrupted by two new bathers flopping down into the water, one short with gray hair and beady eyes, one tall with an aquiline nose and beer-bottle-thick glasses. Apparently, they were continuing an earlier argument.
 
"Socialism is going to the dogs. These greedy, unscrupulous dogs of the Party officials! They're crunching everything to pieces, and devouring all the bones," the short one declared in indignation. "Our state-run company is like a gigantic fat goose, and everyone must take a bite or pluck a feather or two from it. Did you know that the head of the City Export Office demands a five percent bonus in exchange for his export quota approval?"
 
"What can you do, man?" the tall one said sarcastically. "Communism echoes only in nostalgia songs. It's capitalism that's practiced here--with the Communist Party sitting on the top, sucking a red lollipop. So what can you expect of these Party cadres?"
 
"Corrupt throughout. They don't believe in anything except doing everything in their own interest--in the name of China's brand of socialism."
 
"What is capitalism? Everybody grabs for his or her money--in spite of all the communist propaganda in our newspapers. They're just like the beer froth in the tub."
 
"The cops should have bang-banged a few of those rotten eggs!"
 
"Cops?" the tall one said, splashing the water with his big feet. "They're jackals out of one and the same den as those wolves."
 
Chen frowned. Complaints about the widespre...

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312359853
• ISBN 13: 9780312359850
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320