Shanghai Redemption

Starred review from July 27, 2015
Chinese exile Qiu once again movingly and convincingly portrays the plight of an honest cop in a police state, in his ninth novel featuring Insp. Chen Cao (after 2013’s The Enigma of China). Chen’s life and career (he’s also a poet) have never been in more jeopardy. To his dismay, he has learned that he has been unexpectedly “promoted” from his position as deputy Party secretary and chief inspector in the Shanghai Police Bureau to director of the Shanghai Legal Reform Committee. In a country where the interests of the Communist Party come before those of legal reform, Chen realizes that his new job is “merely a reassuring gesture... to the public, at a time when ‘stability maintenance’ was a top political priority.” His fear that he’s going to be discredited is magnified after an invitation to read at a book party celebrating his translations of T.S. Eliot turns out to be a setup. By chance, he avoids being found in a compromised position, but his narrow escape only intensifies his search to identify which of his recent investigations has brought him to the attention of his country’s rulers. The suspense is palpable, and Qiu gives readers a chilling vision of life under authoritarian rule.

July 15, 2015
Demoted to a largely ceremonial post, a master Chinese investigator struggles to understand his reduced circumstances and find his footing. After many years as chief inspector and Deputy Party Secretary of the Shanghai police, the erudite Chen Cao is "reassigned" to the Shanghai Legal Reform Committee as director, a position without real power. On one level, this demotion is no surprise, given Chen's history of scrapes with the Communist Party (Enigma of China, 2013, etc.). But it fills him with foreboding. A long bus trip to rural Qingming to honor his deceased father proves the perfect opportunity for a lengthy rumination. His first assignment in his new post is a dubious "pornography raid" at the Heavenly World nightclub, where, incongruously, there's a book launch party for Chen's translation of T.S. Eliot. He wonders whether he himself was the target of the raid. A salty retired cop known as Old Hunter encourages Chen to explore new opportunities to work as a private investigator. As Chen returns repeatedly to his father's grave in Qingming, where he tries to understand the motives behind his reassignment, the reader learns that he has reason to worry. In his new role, Chen probes a handful of cases, including a philandering government official whose wife fears for her future. When she's murdered in her apartment, Chen's duty is clear. Chen's 10th outing is another complex, methodical police procedural as well as a multifaceted look at a powerful society in flux.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from September 1, 2015

Removed from his prestigious job in the Shanghai police department, Inspector Chen has been "promoted" to director of the Shanghai Legal Reform Committee. This is a familiar Communist Party trick, a demotion in the guise of a promotion; the committee has no power and is decorative at best. Now, Chen is on his way to Suzhou for Qingming, the traditional sweeping of ancestral graves. Hiding out and keeping his head down, Chen is trying to figure out why he is suddenly an enemy of the people and who might want him dead. VERDICT Atmospheric and rich in details about life in communist China, Qiu's incisive portrait of a corrupt system is brilliant. Chen is an honorable man in a world full of deception and treachery. His ninth adventure (after Enigma of China) features the usual mix of murder, poetry, Chinese philosophy, and food. Highly recommended for anyone interested in contemporary China.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2015
Character study, murder mystery, insider's look into the hypocrisy and corruption that riddles contemporary Chinathis novel delivers on all of these, with side dishes of ancient Chinese poetry, Confucian sayings, and food criticism (especially of noodles). Xialong's series hero, Chen Cao, was once chief inspector of special investigations with the Shanghai Police Department and deputy party secretary of the bureau, but he has since been sidelined, fobbed off into heading the completely powerless Legal Reform Committee. The problem, as readers of this series know, is Chen's ethics. In the past, he has investigated delicate cases when Party powers have expected him to perform discrete cover-ups. He's even investigated pollution choking a lake surrounding a resort frequented by Party leaders (Don't Cry, Tai Lake, 2012). This time Chen's visit to his father's grave leads to a meeting with a beautiful woman who wants to hire him to investigate the world of the ernai, women lured into the thriving sex-club and prostitution business. Chen also unofficially helps his former colleagues look into the actions of the Red Prince, a Party official at the outer edges of corruption and crime. Watching Chen work at the margins, under great peril, makes for a stressful but very satisfying read. Another superb entry in an always-outstanding series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)