When Red is Black: Inspector Chen 3 (As heard on Radio 4) - Softcover

Xiaolong, Qiu

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340897562 ISBN 13: 9780340897560

Publisher: Mulholland Books, 2007

Synopsis

Now a BBC Radio 4 Drama Series.When Inspector Chen Cao agrees to do a translation job for a Triad-connected businessman he is given a laptop, a 'little secretary' to provide for his every need, medical care for his mother. There are, it seems, no strings attached . . . Then a murder is reported: Chen is loath to shorten his working holiday, so Sergeant Yu is forced to take charge of the investigation. The victim, a middle-aged teacher, has been found dead in her tiny room in a converted multi-family house. Only a neighbour could have committed the crime, but there is no motive. It is only when Chen returns and starts to investigate the past that he finds answers. But by then he has troubles of his own.

About this title

About the Author

Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai and received an MA in English and American Literature in China. He received a PhD in Comparative Literature from Washington University in St. Louis, where he now teaches. He is the author of Death of a Red Heroine, which has been translated into seven languages, and A Loyal Character Dancer.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The third Inspector Chen mystery--the second, Death of a Red Heroine (2000), won the Anthony Award)--is set in today's Shanghai, a city of 13 million people and an uneasy mixture of political and cultural movements, new and refusing to die. What better way to navigate this city than through the adventures of the detectives who handle homicides and disappearances for the Special Case Squad, the unit that deals with politically sensitive crimes? Inspector Chen, a former English major, poetry lover, and dedicated gourmand, briefly steps aside here (he has a translation project taking up his vacation time) and lets his subordinate, the housing-oppressed Detective Yu, handle the murder of a dissident writer, the female author of a novel considered highly critical of the new China. This woman, who lived in a traditional Shanghai shikumen house, had become a social isolate in that most social of buildings. In a somewhat heavy-handed contrivance, Chen's translation project involves a proposal for a modern galleria based on the communal shikumen model, drawing him inevitably back into the investigation. The Chen mysteries proceed at a stately, slow pace, not unlike the meals that Chen enjoys. Plot is secondary to food, to poetry, to politics, and to Chen's highly complex character. For those with similar taste and metabolism, these are mysteries to savor. Connie Fletcher
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About this edition

• Publisher: Mulholland Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0340897562
• ISBN 13: 9780340897560
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320