Sunday, November 18, 2018

City of Ink by Elsa Hart

City of Ink: A Mystery by Elsa Hart --- 341 pages including Acknowledgments.

Sequel to The White Mirror and Jade Dragon Mountain. Li Du, the former Imperial Librarian who was dismissed from his post and banished from the Imperial City after his friend and mentor Shu was executed for his part in a plot to assassinate the Kangxi Emperor, has spent years wandering the borders of the Empire until chance and circumstances allowed him to prevent a different plot to assassinate the Emperor and won him a pardon. (Jade Dragon Mountain.)

Still, he could not face returning to the Imperial City and the memories of his old life, so he continued to wander in company with a friend met along the way, a storyteller and adventurer named Hamza.  They joined a merchant caravan through the mountains, where they were snowbound by a blizzard in a high valley, and discovered the dead body of a hermit artist. Li Du solved that mystery and uncovered another plot against the Empire. In the course of that investigation he discovered information that led him to believe that his friend Shu was innocent. (The White Mirror.) 

Now Li Du has returned to the Imperial City, where he takes a humble post as a clerk to the Inspector in charge of the North Borough Office in the Outer City. His position allows him to access records that he hopes will help him piece together evidence of what really happened all those years ago. Soon he begins to suspect that Shu stumbled onto the conspiracy and for unknown reasons agreed to take the blame.

Before he can continue his clandestine research however, Li Du becomes involved in the investigation of a double murder in the North Borough.  The wife of a factory owner and a government official from the Ministry of Rites are both found dead in the factory office. It appears as though they were meeting there for a tryst, and the factory owner discovered them and killed them. The factory owner is known to be a man who drinks heavily, and when he is drunk is prone to violence. There are many witnesses who can testify that he was drunk that night, and he even admits he was drunk --- but he vehemently denies the murders.

The Inspector and the Judge he reports to, however, are satisfied of his guilt, but are pressing hard for a confession.  And the law allows a man to kill an adulterous wife and her lover if he catches them in the act, so it would be to the husband's advantage to confess.  Instead, he is found dead in his cell.  It appears he has hung himself out of remorse. Everyone is ready to close this unsavory case except Li Du. He continues to suspect that something else was going on, and these murders were all commited to cover up some greater crime.

Another excellent and complex mystery plus an engrossing portrait of early 18th century China.
Hart is a talent to watch.

Click HERE for a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE for  a review from Kirkus Reviews.

Click HERE for a review from the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Click HERE for a Wikipedia article describing the Chinese Imperial Civil Service examination system.

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