Engaging new series featuring crime and detecting in China!

-

Thief of Souls (Inspector Lu Fei #1) by  Brian Klingborg                

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


I rather think Klingborg has nailed it with his introduction of a new Police Officer and his crimal investigations in the countryside of modern Northern China.
Inspector Lu Fei lives in a rural region as an officer with Public Security Bureau by preference. When a particularly grotesque murder is revealed right in his backyard, he contacts the Criminal Investigations Bureau in Beijing. An uneasy alliance ensues with Superintendent Song.
The inquiry leads Lu to some strange places, including evidence of Party graft and corruption, and to the conclusion that they have a serial killer on their hands.
A commentary on life in general in China, of how Lu came to be where he is, of historical happenings in the recent past effecting Lu’s decisions about his life, I found fascinating, as are the chapter introductions wth quotes from Chairman Mao.
I must admit I wondered about Klingborg’s understandings but reading his bio shows that he is indeed qualified to write from Lu’s viewpoint. He’s a Harvard Graduate of the East Asia Studies program, has lived in South East Asia. He also studies and writes about martial arts.
It so happens Surprise! Surprise! that Lu Fei is a martial arts proponent earning the name Bruce Lu during his school years. I must say Lu’s reactions are realistic if not always graceful. 
I enjoyed looking at life through his laconic, rather cynical lens after the mode of the ‘hard boiled detective with heart’ trope.
I’m pleased to say that Inspector Lu joins the other modern Chinese detecting / police novels I enjoy such as Inspector Chan, Rei Shimura  and Inspector Chen Cao.
The way Lu looks at his life, his passion for duty, and respect he displays are aspects I enjoyed.
I’m hooked!

A Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press ARC via NetGalley 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Things aren’t as they seem!

-
Image
A Murderous Tryst  (Beatrice Hyde-Care Mystery #11) by Lynn Messina    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Oh my! Bea certainly has a lot to contend with. Bea’s rattled! The Duke has been missing from their bed for a night. When a distraught Bea come downstairs the next morning she finds her beloved husband Damien clasped in the arms of a glamorous female. A female who turns out to be Kesgrave’s first mistress, Mrs. Penelope Taylor! What?! Of course Bea’s heart sinks and she falls back on her painful memories of Aunt Vera’s responses to such a situation. Bea is both shaken and traumatised, but determined not to show it.  It seems Penny has been accused of murder. Actually  Penny’s desperately trying to avoid Newgate.    As a former mistress Penny does the unthinkable thing in society’s eyes. She asks for help from Bea. Bea’s response is just as shocking. She says yes. Kesgrave is as usual inscrutable. Of course this is the beginning of a harebrained chase, complications between Bea  and Amien,  and an investiga
Read more

Women in war—Internment by the Japanese 1942-45.

-
Image
Sisters Under the Rising Sun  by Heather Morris    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A fitting tribute to the women interred by the Japanese in Indonesia and Malaya during 1942 until liberation in 1945. Amongst the internees are a group of Australian Army nurses who were not given recognition by the Japanese as members of the armed forces and therefore not prisoners of war according to the Conventions of war.  Sister Vivian Bullwinkle is the only survivor of the massacre of a group of soldiers and nurses on Radji Beach, Bangka Island near Sumatra  in 1942, after the sinking of  HMS Vyner Brooke. There are a number of civilian prisoners in the camps like Norah Chambers and her sister Ena.  Combined, the story of these women interred under terrible conditions, their struggles and achievements are monumental.  Their gifts to their fellows beyond speech. Music plays an important part in uplifting the prisoners’ spirits. It’s truly a privilege to read about their plight, their vows to each other, and their braver
Read more

A sparkling ride!

-
Image
An Inconvenient Earl  (A Royal Match #4) by Julia London      ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ What an untidy, meandering, convoluted, and strangely joyous tale! Emma Clark’s abusive husband Albert, the Earl of Dearborn had decamped to Africa, leaving Emma to wander Butterhill Hall and manage the estate alone. Months later a man turns up to give Emma the news Albert has died in Cairo from yellow fever. Said gentleman then promptly has some sort of attack and dies on Emma’s receiving room floor. Emma’s stunned. What to do? She knows her sister-in-law Adele, will toss Emma out of Butterhill Hall when she learns of Albert’s death, so Emma says nothing. Almost a year is gone when Luke Olivien, the Weslorian Comte ve Marlaine, son of the Duke of Astasia, turns up to deliver Albert’s pocket watch to Emma. Luka is an anthropologist. He’s been travelling with Bedouin tribes studying their migratory habits and trade routes. Emma does all she can to avoid having Luka tell her that Albert is dead. She ignores him, fl
Read more