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