Qiu Xiaolong is a poet, translator of classical Chinese poetry, and author of seven previous novels featuring Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police. A native of Shanghai, Qiu and his family now live in St. Louis, where he teaches at Washington University.
To his own bemusement, Chief Inspector Chen finds himself a rising star in the Communist Party, next in line for the top political job in the Shanghai Police Department, while his maverick tendency to pursue justice rather than political correctness has given him a popular reputation amongst the discontented and disillusioned left in the dust by the new "socialism with Chinese characteristics."
Because of his unique skills, Chen is often assigned the politically "sensitive" cases related to accusations of official corruption, and his latest assignment seems much the same. The head of the Shanghai Housing Development Committee has been accused of corruption in an Internet "crowd-sourced" investigation on a public web forum. Because of the scandal, the local Party Committee has been forced to act. The man was removed from office and placed in detention where, while isolated and under guard, he apparently hanged himself. And while Party officials seem eager to close the case, the evidence doesn't quite add up to suicide in Chen's opinion.
An intriguing inside look at a culture in transition from a stark past through a bitter present to an unknown future.
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