When Red Is Black

April 26, 2004
Like its predecessors Death of a Red Heroine
(2000) and A Loyal Character Dancer
(2002), Qiu's third Inspector Chen mystery provides an insightful look into modern China. When Yin Lige, the author of a banned book, is found murdered in her Shanghai apartment, detective Yu Guangming and his boss, Chief Inspector Chen Cao, must solve a case that may have far-reaching political and social implications. (The "red" of the title refers to Mao Zedong's Red Guard, the "black" to the supposed enemies of the working class denounced during the Cultural Revolution.) Yu doggedly pursues all leads, even as personal misfortunes threaten to ruin his life. Chen must help from afar as he takes time off to earn extra income translating business documents for an ambitious entrepreneur. Suspects range from the poignant "shrimp woman," who peels shrimp for a living, to possible enemies from the distant past. Yu soon uncovers the long-ago romance between the victim and Yang Bing, a college professor. This love affair, delicately rendered, allows the author to include many fragile but beautiful Chinese poems. Deftly depicting a China fractured along class and party lines even in matters of love, Qiu also dramatically demonstrates how the past affects the daily lives of Chinese people today. Only a banal solution to the mystery spoils an otherwise engrossing read.

Starred review from May 1, 2004
The third Inspector Chen mystery--the second, " Death of a Red Heroine" (2000), won the Anthony Award)--is set in today's Shanghai, a city of 13 million people and an uneasy mixture of political and cultural movements, new and refusing to die. What better way to navigate this city than through the adventures of the detectives who handle homicides and disappearances for the Special Case Squad, the unit that deals with politically sensitive crimes? Inspector Chen, a former English major, poetry lover, and dedicated gourmand, briefly steps aside here (he has a translation project taking up his vacation time) and lets his subordinate, the housing-oppressed Detective Yu, handle the murder of a dissident writer, the female author of a novel considered highly critical of the new China. This woman, who lived in a traditional Shanghai " shikumen "house, had become a social isolate in that most social of buildings. In a somewhat heavy-handed contrivance, Chen's translation project involves a proposal for a modern galleria based on the communal " shikumen "model, drawing him inevitably back into the investigation. The Chen mysteries proceed at a stately, slow pace, not unlike the meals that Chen enjoys. Plot is secondary to food, to poetry, to politics, and to Chen's highly complex character. For those with similar taste and metabolism, these are mysteries to savor.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)