Death of a Red Heroine

Rating:
Summary: Hang In There
Review: It took about 100 pages before I got into the book. But after that, I couldn't put the book down!

Rating:
Summary: Contemporary Historical Fiction
Review: Qiu Xiaolong's Chen Cao novels are not traditional detective novels. Rather, they use the detective novel genre to paint a portrait of contemporary Shanghai as it slowly transforms itself from the center of the cultural revolution in the 1960s to its new role as the center of China's capitalist revolution. It is this struggle between the handful of winners and, apparently, hordes of losers in this transformation which give his series their dramatic tension. If you wanted to know more about China in general and Shanghai in particular from a person who clearly has a profound insight into both these topics, this is your book.

Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Review: The Death of a Red Heroine felt like a breeze of fresh air. This mystery novel is quite different from its Western cousins. There is one suspect, but neverthless mystery shrouds the way the crime was commited and whether or not the suspect is going to be brought to justice. This novel does a splendid job in entertwining personal conflicts, political shenanigans, and cultural-artistic aspects of Shanghai society with the murder mystery. The result is spellbinding reading, and cultural-political enlightenment about modern day China.

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Summary: Brilliant Debut
Review: The first book in the Inspector Chen series (followed by A Loyal Character Dancer) is a spellbinding meld detective procedural and portrait of China in transition following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Set in Shanghai in the Spring of 1990, the story starts with the discovery of the body of a "national model worker." The case falls into the hands newly promoted Det. Inspector Chen Cao and his subordinate Detective Yu, who work under the watchful eyes of old Commissar Zhang and Party Secretary Li.

Communist China makes for an instantly compelling and intriguing setting, as the police must wend their way through labyrinthine political considerations in a country where one's standing in the Party is paramount but change is clearly underway. The mystery and investigation proceed in a leisurely fashion, and the true challenge is not identifying the murderer, but being able to gather the necessary evidence and piecing together a motive.

Inspector Chen and Detective Yu are instantly likable and deeply-drawn characters, as is their circle of friends and family. Woven into the story are the their personal lives, which the author uses to paint a vivid picture of China just a decade ago. Most memorable are the cramped housing conditions, the continued reverence for elders, and the many many mouthwatering descriptions of food. Hardest to imagine for Western readers will be the influence of Party standing and its intrusion into personal relationships, especially when it comes to love.

This is a long, but never boring story that deserves wide readership amongst mystery readers as well as those with an interest in China. A well-deserved winner of the Edgar for best first novel.

Rating:
Summary: Pleasant but sometimes aimless
Review: This is a basic mystery, with a plot that's very linear with few surprises; thus it's mainly a story of two men overcoming the system around them, a bureaucracy of Red China with the accompanying human foolishness that goes with impersonal, bureaucratic pretense. The characters are its main strength, with the exception of the female lead, who is introduced too late in the story. Its pacing is exciting in that every event is a deadpan, with the conclusion announced early, and then focus building around how it is overcome. Quotes from mostly Chinese poets throughout build a sense of metaphor and background that is both random and highly focused. While it is verbose and often meanders, this is a pleasant book which focuses more on revealing people than mysteries.

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Summary: If you like bad kung fu movies, this book is for you
Review: This is easily the worst book I have read this year, and really I have to think way back to remember a book as bad as this one. Let's start with the plot. This is supposed to be a murder mystery. That would normally imply intriguing plot twists, misdirection, exciting discoveries, and a surprise ending. In this book, there is only one murder suspect; he is identified in the middle of the book; and (how's this for a shocker?) he ends up being the killer. How exactly is that a mystery? Now for characters.... There are a bunch of them, and some are mildly entertaining in a mindless, childish sort of way. None is truly memorable, not even Chief Inspector Chen who "solves" the case. They are all, without exception, one-dimensional and stereotypical to the point of insulting the reader. And lastly, prose. This book reads like a bad kung fu movie dubbed into English. During most of the dialogue I couldn't help imagining the characters on the big screen, with their lips moving about two seconds before or after the words are spoken.

Please tell me there won't be a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: If you like bad kung fu movies, this book is for you
Review: This is easily the worst book I have read this year, and really I have to think way back to remember a book as bad as this one. Let's start with the plot. This is supposed to be a murder mystery. That would normally imply intriguing plot twists, misdirection, exciting discoveries, and a surprise ending. In this book, there is only one murder suspect; he is identified in the middle of the book; and (how's this for a shocker?) he ends up being the killer. How exactly is that a mystery? Now for characters.... There are a bunch of them, and some are mildly entertaining in a mindless, childish sort of way. None is truly memorable, not even Chief Inspector Chen who "solves" the case. They are all, without exception, one-dimensional and stereotypical to the point of insulting the reader. And lastly, prose. This book reads like a bad kung fu movie dubbed into English. During most of the dialogue I couldn't help imagining the characters on the big screen, with their lips moving about two seconds before or after the words are spoken.

Please tell me there won't be a sequel.

Rating:
Summary: A good mystery and a great picture of life in urban China
Review: This novel merits attention not only because it is excellent, but also because it is groundbreaking. As fas as I know, it is the first English-language police procedural set in contemporary China that is written by a Chinese author. Of course, I would love to be proven wrong on this since it would mean that there was other material out there for me to read. To my knowledge, most previous mysteries and thrillers set in China have been by Western authors. The most famous are probably van Gulik's classic Judge Dee mysteries. Unfortunately, more recently we have suffered from inane thrillers in which a Western protagonist becomes entangled in some sort of incomprehensible and fundamentally absurd political intrigue, confronts a series of diabolical but paper-thin villains, and receives assistance from some sort of beautiful and exotic love interest. Finally, with Red Heroine, we have a detective novel written by an insider with Chinese protagonists, Chinese villains, and only incidental roles for Westerners. I hope very much this is the beginning of a trend.

Now for my discussion of the novel itself. The novel worked well on three levels.

First of all, it was the sort of slow-paced, atmospheric police procedural that I like the most. In many ways, it reminds me de Wetering's Grijpstra and de Gier series, Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels, or Sjowall and Wahloo's Martin Beck novels. It uses a criminal case and the accompanying investigation as a lens through which to view contemporary society. The pace is leisurely, it provides a very strong sense of place, and has nicely realized, complex, and mostly authentic characters. So if you like reading about Grijpstra and de Gier, Wallender, or Beck, you will like this book.

Second, I thought it was an excellent and very authentic portrait of life in urban China in the 1990s. The author takes advantage of the possibilities offered by the narrative form of the procedural to introduce characters from many different walks of life and show how they have been affected by the turbulence of previous decades and by the uncertainty created by the rapid economic and political change of the 1990s. Generational conflicts, economic and social clevages, and political change all play a role. The portrait of life is so complete that I am weighing the possibility of assigning the novel when I teach my class on Chinese society next year. The book's focus on the mundane details of everyday life sets it apart from much of the other English-language fiction about China that seems to focus so much on the exotic.

Third, I really appreciated the quality of the prose. Reflecting perhaps the author's apparent background in literature, the imagery in many of the passages was really evocative. I have spent a fair amount of time in China, and the authors' descriptions of people's homes, restaurants, typical street scenes, and so forth all really resonated.

The novel is not perfect, reflecting perhaps the fact that it is the author's first published detective novel. I would like to have seen more of the intricate details of police work that help 'authenticate' procedurals. While interviewing and the gathering of forensic evidence was handled adequately, there were one or two places where the description fell flat. For example, on a couple of occasions when a character needs to go somewhere without being followed, the author simply states that the character 'made sure he wans't being followed.' This is a marked difference from, for example, Wahloo and Sjowall's "The Man Who Went Up in Smoke" where we get ample details of Martin Beck's attempts to evade surveillance while in Budapest. In this particular case, I was completely mystified as to how anyone in China who knew they the subject of special attention from the government could 'make sure they weren't being followed.'

Another very minor quibble I had was that the romanization of some of the names seemed problematic. A historical character named Liu Xiahui (the Liu Xiahui of "Zuo huai bu luan") was repeatedly referred to as Liu Xiawei. The Shenzhen SEZ was repeatedly referred to as Shengzhen. These point are of course minor, perhaps they will be dealt with when the novel is reprinted.

Overall this is an excellent mystery, and a nice picture of urban life in changing China. I am looking forward very much to the author's next work.

Rating:
Summary: cultural police procedural, much like...
Review: This police procedural is also a pleasant introduction to contemporary (post-Mao) Chinese society. There's a tradition of such works, from various time periods: Sjowall & Wahloo's bleak 1960's-70's early-socialist Sweden ("Roseanna" et. al. featuring Martin Beck); Janwillem van de Wetering's 1970's laissez-faire Holland ("Outsider in Amsterdam" et. al. featuring Grijpstra & De Gier); James Melville's 1980's go-go Japan ("Wages of Zen" et. al. featuring Tetsuo Otani). I think they're all wonderful -- each series tries to be a cultural snapshot with insights into the native psyche via the crimes and peoples' reactions to them. Reviewers can argue over whether these are cultural caricatures, or may complain the author waxes eloquent on some cultural icon while the procedural plot languishes. Read 'em anyway, I say -- you'll get a feel for the society, and the changes from traditional ways -- even if it's a distorted picture. Then again, I liked "Dennis the Menace goes to Mexico" when I was a kid...

Rating:
Summary: a masterful weaving of culture, politics and mystery
Review: Though framed as a murder mystery, the greater achievement in Red Heroine is the interweaving of economic and political transformation with the pursuit of justice. This is a book that might not be publishable in China, but might also be less interesting to readers there. I could not put the novel down. Its texture felt true to the China I have seen during my limited travels there, and the relationships among the characters were drawn with enough detail that I felt I knew them as well as my own friends.

For any Westerner who wonders whether she/he will be able to identify with a purely Eastern cast of characters, steeped in a thoroughly different culture, have no fear! Qiu Xiaolong breathes life into his Chief Inspector, his love interest, and other characters, and the life transcends cultural barriers. The only challenge to Western readers may be the Chinese names, but with such rich, sympathetic characters, it is not difficult to remember who's who. Not to be missed!

For those new to the SoHo crime series, standards are exceptionally high for a small press.