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Rating: 
Summary: good concept, but not very well written
Review: I was intrigued by the concept of a detective mystery set in Tang Dynasty China. Unfortunately the author hasn't mastered the essentials of writing a really good novel. The characters didn't feel believable, the dialogue is stiff and unnatural, and the plot is slow-moving and contrived.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read!
Review: Judge Dee is an imperial magistrate who travels the country solving mysteries and murders. Not content merely to judge cases as they come to court, Judge Dee investigates crimes himself. Now Chief Lord Justice, Judge Dee is sent undercover to the city of Canton. His job: to find out what happened to the Court Censor. Was he murdered or has he disappeared for other reasons? Dealing with practised and conniving Imperial Court intriguers, Dee finds the case complicated as a host of foreigners are involved including a mysterious Arab with a curved sword and an exotic belly dancer. Undaunted, and with the help of his officers, the loyal Tao Gan and Chiao Tai, Dee sets out to unravel the case. Judge Dee was practising in the 7th century but the writer, Robert Van Gulik, was a Dutch diplomat living in China in the early 20th Century. Interested in Chinese history, he decided to write a series of detective novel based old Chinese stories. Beautifully written, each Judge Dee story is a pearl of literature. The English is beautiful yet modern, easy to read yet evocative of the China that existed over 20 centuries ago.
Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: Judge Dee is an imperial magistrate who travels the country solving mysteries and murders. Not content merely to judge cases as they come to court, Judge Dee investigates crimes himself. Now Chief Lord Justice, Judge Dee is sent undercover to the city of Canton. His job: to find out what happened to the Court Censor. Was he murdered or has he disappeared for other reasons? Dealing with practised and conniving Imperial Court intriguers, Dee finds the case complicated as a host of foreigners are involved including a mysterious Arab with a curved sword and an exotic belly dancer. Undaunted, and with the help of his officers, the loyal Tao Gan and Chiao Tai, Dee sets out to unravel the case. Judge Dee was practising in the 7th century but the writer, Robert Van Gulik, was a Dutch diplomat living in China in the early 20th Century. Interested in Chinese history, he decided to write a series of detective novel based old Chinese stories. Beautifully written, each Judge Dee story is a pearl of literature. The English is beautiful yet modern, easy to read yet evocative of the China that existed over 20 centuries ago.
Rating:
Summary: Another chapter in a unique series
Review: This book is part of Van Gulik's unique series of Judge Dee novels which chronicle the cases investigated by the famous magistrate of classical Chinese detective stories. A staple of the Judge Dee stories are the multi-layered plot and accurate historical details of ancient Chinese culture and practices and this book does not disappoint in both areas. In this chapter of the series, Judge Dee is assigned to the city of Canton to investigate the disappearance and subsequent murder of a Chinese noble. Numerous side plots are thrown into the mix, involving a blind cricket-catcher and mysterious Arabian assassins. All of which the Judge slowly unravels using ingenuity and plain, old-fashioned deductive prowess which is the highlight of all the books in the series.
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