Shanghai Redemption by Qiu Xiaolong

Shanghai Redemption: An Inspector Chen Novel by Qiu Xiaolong --- 308 pages

Tenth book in the Inspector Chen series combining police work, poetry and politics in modern China.

Chief Inspector Chen of the Shanghai police is a rarity in China, an honest and dogged investigator who has managed so far to walk a fine line between his responsibilites as head of Special Investigations Squad and the demands of the Communist Party.

But that delicate balance is disrupted when Chen is abruptly removed from his police position and "promoted" to the office of Director of the Shanghai Legal Reform Committee, where he is isolated, stripped of his police resources and a sitting duck for unknown powerful Party officials determined to cover up massive corruption and murder.

Trouble is, Chen doesn't know which of the politically sensitive cases he was handed caused the panic that led to his ouster, so how can he protect himself against the inevitable attacks that are coming?

What his enemies fail to realize however is that over the years of his career, Chen has built a network of highly unofficial connections inside and outside of the police and the Party.  These are people who will do what they can behind the scenes to help Chen out.

Qiu Xiaolong creates a compelling portrait of the New China's "socialist realities with Chinese characteristics," seen through the disillusioned eyes of one wary cop.

Qiu Xiaolong was born and raised in Shanghai, and now teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read a review from Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read an interview with the author describing the real events that inspired Shanghai Redemption. 

Enigma of China by Qiu Xiaolong

Enigma of China: An Inspector Chen Novel by Qiu Xiaolong --- 277 pages

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.