Death Notice
A Novel
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Fiendishly inventive.”
—The Wall Street Journal
Chengdu, China: The vibrant capital of Sichuan Province is suddenly held hostage when a shocking manifesto is released by an anonymous vigilante known as Eumenides. It is a bold declaration of war against a corrupt legal system, with Eumenides acting as judge and executioner. The public starts nominating potential targets, and before long hundreds of names are added to his kill list.
Eumenides's cunning game has only just begun. First, he publishes a “death notice,” announcing his next target, the crimes for which the victim will be punished, and the date of the execution. The note is a deeply personal taunt to the police. Everyone knows who is going to die and when it's going to happen, but the police fail to stop the attack. The 4/18 Task Force, an elite group of detectives and specialists, is assembled to catch Eumenides before he strikes again. In the process, they discover alarming connections to an eighteen-year-old cold case, and they find out that some members of the team have much to hide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Chengdu in 2002, this uneven opening volume in a bestselling trilogy in China the first of Zhou's books to be translated into English offers little that American suspense fans haven't seen before. Shortly after Sgt. Zheng Haoming begins looking into new evidence concerning a case he investigated in 1984, he is found stabbed to death in his apartment. Meanwhile, someone using the pseudonym Eumenides, for the Greek goddesses of retribution, posts a call for justice on a message board, asking the public for the names of wrongdoers who deserve punishment. Since this person seems to be the killer in the 18-year-old case, the police re-form the original task force. Eumenides begins to post a series of execution notices, but, despite the forewarning, the police are unable to prevent the killings. Zhou does a credible job keeping the clues and the complicated plot straight, but clich d prose ("You cut right to the center, like a hot knife through butter. A woman after my own heart!") may be a problem for some readers. Few will eagerly await the second volume.
