A wonderfully evocative mystery set in 18th century China and featuring an Imperial Librarian as the "amateur" sleuth.
The Emperor is coming to the distant border province of Yunnan to reinforce the Imperial presence during a total eclipse of the sun. Just a few days prior to this event, a wandering exile, Li Du, once an Imperial Librarian, arrives in town to find his cousin is the Imperial Magistrate responsible for orchestrating the celebration, which could win him a promotion and a return to the seat of power from this obscure posting.
Also present is an elderly Jesuit missionary and astronomer, and a young Jesuit botanist newly arrived from India; two of the small band of Jesuits that the Emperor has allowed into his closely guarded realm because of their knowledge of Western sciences. Unbeknownst to most of his subjects, the Jesuit astronomers have for many years provided the Emperor with precise calculations of such celestial events as eclipses, which the Emperor uses to reinforce his Imperial divinity.
Li Du met Jesuits when he lived in the capital, and learned to read and speak Latin so that he could talk to them and read their Western books, so he is intrigued to meet some of them again. Then one evening, during a banquet at the Magistrate''s palace, the elderly Jesuit is found dead in his room. At first the Magistrate insists that the death was a natural one, the result of old age and fatigue. But Li Du soon uncovers evidence that the Jesuit was poisoned. There are a number of suspects who all have or could have reasons to wish the old man dead. Finally the Magistrate reluctantly agrees to allow Li Du to investigate; but when the Emperor arrives in three days, Li Du must either name the killer or suffer the Emperor's displeasure.
The author lived in a number of different countries while she was growing up, and married a botanist whose research took them to China, and eventually to St. Louis, so there is a local connection. This is her first book, and has garnered much critical praise for the deft way she has interwoven the mystery with the history of the period and the geography of the region.
Click HERE to read about the author in the St. Louis Post Dispatch
Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus
Click HERE to read a review from the South China Morning Post
Click HERE to read a review from the Christian Science Monitor
