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. 

The Golden Egg by Donna Leon

The Golden Egg: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon --- 276 pages

A new Brunetti mystery is always a treat. As an American I can only marvel at the leisurely pace of life in general and criminal investigation in particular, in modern Venice, as described in Leon's novels. Now that 60 hour work weeks have become the new normal, and everyone is connected and on call 24/7 here, Guido Brunetti's life seems idyllic: going out for coffee with colleagues, home for lunch with the family, conveyed by police launch through the canals of Venice as he pursues his investigations, getting home every evening in time to watch the sun set and share a bottle of wine with his wife.  

In this latest installment, Brunetti puts his official investigations on hold to pursue his interest in the accidental death of a forty-year-old man he has seen around his neighborhood for years without ever knowing his name. Everyone assumed  that David Cavanelli was a deaf mute and simple-minded. He lived with his mother, and one morning she found him dead in his bed. It appeared he had swallowed some of his mother's sleeping pills, mistaking the brightly colored capsules for candy. But oddly, neither the police nor the social services can find any record whatsoever of Davide Cavanelli's existence in any of their multitudinous systems. His mother isn't co-operating with their efforts.  And nobody in the tightly-knit neighborhood is willing to break the conspiracy of silence surrounding Davide --- or his mother.

Silken Prey by John Sandford

Silken Prey: A Novel by John Sandford --- 406 pages

In the latest of Sandford's best selling thrillers featuring Lucas Davenport of the Minnesota State Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Sandford posits the theory that it takes a sociopathic personality to succeed in contemporary politics.

When a right wing Republican Senator is the target of a particularly vicious sex scandal on the eve of a too tight to call election, Lucas Davenport is tasked by the Governor for a quick and quiet investigation.

When Lucas discovers a possible link between the dirt that was planted on the Senator and a minor political operative who's suddenly dropped out of sight, he follows a trail that leads him to the inner circle of the Senator's Democratic opponent.

Fast-paced, tightly plotted, morally ambiguous; Sandford's books are totally addictive. Save this one for the weekend, because you won't put it down until you're done.