Death of a Red Heroine
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4.3 • 67 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A TIME “100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time”
Meet Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police in this “refreshingly brave exploration into political China, woven around a tense thriller” (Huffington Post).
“A matchless pearl.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air
A young “national model worker,” renowned for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up dead in a Shanghai canal. As Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau struggles to trace the hidden threads of her past, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. Chen must tiptoe around his superiors if he wants to get to the bottom of this crime, and risk his career—perhaps even his life—to see justice done.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This compelling detective novel is set against the fascinating backdrop of 1990s Shanghai, a period of profound political and cultural change in China. Inspector Chen Cao is pulled into a grisly crime investigation involving the murder of a “national model worker,” a woman who served as the ubiquitous face of the government’s propaganda campaigns. As Chen searches doggedly for answers, author Qiu Xiaolong effortlessly weaves in fascinating details about Chinese history, art, and poetry into the thrilling mystery. We really felt drawn into the immersive sense of unease as the policeman hits the streets—and the offices of powerful people—where saying or doing the wrong thing can have dire consequences. Be prepared: This first book in the Inspector Chen series may be the start of a new mystery obsession.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set a decade ago in Shanghai, this political mystery offers a peek into the tightly sealed, often crooked world of post-Tiananmen Square China. Chen Cao, a poet and T.S. Eliot translator bureaucratically assigned to be chief inspector, has to investigate the murder of Guan Hongying, a young woman celebrated as a National Model Worker, but who kept her personal life strictly and mysteriously confidential. Chen and his comrade, Detective Yu, take turns interviewing Guan's neighbors and co-workers, but it seems most of them either know nothing or are afraid to talk openly about a deceased, highly regarded public figure. Maybe they shouldn't be so uneasy, some characters reason; after all, these are "modern times" and socialist China is taking great leaps toward free speech. Chen and Yu make headway when they stumble on Wu Xiaoming, senior editor of Red Star magazine, who apparently was involved with Guan before her death. Tiptoeing around touchy politics and using investigative tactics bordering on blackmail, Chen slowly pieces together the motives behind the crime. The author, himself a poet and critic, peppers the story with allusions to classical Chinese literature, juxtaposing poignant poetry with a gruesome murder so that the novel reads like the translation of an ancient text imposed over a modern tale of intrigue. This is an impressive and welcome respite from the typical crime novel.
