Hold Your Breath, China
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"Fascinating... Xiaolong writes with both urgency and grace about modern China is another well-crafted mystery" - Booklist Starred Review
Inspector Chen is on the case of a serial murderer when he is called away to report on environmentalists trying to tackle the pollution issues in China.
Chief Inspector Chen and Detective Yu Guangming are brought into a serial murder case when the Homicide squad proves incapable of solving it. But before Chen can make a start, he is called away by a high-ranking Party member for a special assignment: to infiltrate a group of environmental activists meeting to discuss the pollution levels in the country and how to prompt the government into action.
Chen knows it will be a far from simple task, especially when he discovers the leader of the group is a woman from his past. Meanwhile, Yu is left to investigate a serial murder case on his own.
Both Chen and Yu face pressure from those above to resolve the cases in a satisfactory way . . . even if that means innocents face the punishment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Qiu's outstanding 10th novel featuring Chief Insp. Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau (after 2015's Shanghai Redemption) finds Chen shelved for vigorously investigating corruption involving high-ranking Communist Party officials. But the capable Chen is soon back in action, along with his partner, Det. Yu Guangming, after the Special Case squad fails to make progress on a serial killer case; someone has murdered three people by shattering their skulls, apparently with a hammer. The victims share no obvious connections, and the Party Secretary himself requests Chen and Yu's involvement. Chen is later pulled away from the case by the retired first secretary of the Party Central Discipline Committee, who wants him to spy on a group of antipollution activists bent on forcing the government to address China's air quality. That the group's leader is a woman Chen knows well complicates his task. Qiu's execution matches his ambition. Fans of mysteries about honest cops working for compromised regimes won't want to miss this one.
