A Deadly Injustice

September 12, 2011
Set in Cathay in 1268, Morson’s second Nick Zuliani mystery offers a stronger plot than its predecessor, City of the Dead (2008). Zuliani, a Venetian who’s become “official Investigator of Crimes” to Kubilai Khan, receives orders from his immediate boss, Lin Chu-Tsai, clerk to the minister of justice of the Mongol empire, to travel from Xanadu to the remote town of Pianfu to resolve questions concerning a poisoning case. After old Geng Biao dropped dead after eating some soup, his prospective daughter-in-law, 20-year-old Jianxu, was arrested and tortured to extract a confession. Suspicious of the validity of Jianxu’s admission, Zuliani looks to the victim’s financial dealings to identify others with motives to kill. Morson undermines the drama of the climax with some red flags pointing to the likely guilty party, but his hero, who runs scams on fellow residents of Xanadu, has enough character depth to sustain interest.

October 15, 2011
A Venetian Investigator for the Mongol Emperor is given a difficult case to solve. In 1268, with most of China ruled by the Mongols, Nick Zuliani and his colleague Lin Chu-Tsai are given a task that sets them up for failure. Now that a young woman has been convicted of murdering her future father-in-law, her sentence is put on hold while Nick and Lin (City of the Dead, 2008, etc.) investigate. Lin is sure that his enemy Ko Su-Tsung has put them in a no-win situation: If they prove the girl innocent, they will be insulting a highly placed Mongol official. They set off on the two-week trip accompanied by Nick's lover Gurbesu, a Pole whose village was overrun by Mongols, and a Venetian Friar. Upon arriving, they interview the girl, her adoptive mother, who treats her like a slave, and the murdered man's son, who wants to marry his father's accused killer. They identify the poison added to the old man's soup as aconite but still can't determine who put it there. Nick is adept at running scams, usually to fatten his purse, but this time he must pull off the biggest scam of all to get them out of a dangerous trap and identify a murderer. Nick's second case is best read for the historical detail rather than the ponderous mystery.

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November 1, 2011

Venetian Niccolo Zuliani (City of the Dead) returns in a spunky sequel and proves his first-rate detecting abilities are no fluke. What Nick is doing in China during the Song Dynasty (the year is 1268) is a fascinating story in itself, and Morson spins it in a delightful way. In this outing, the red-headed investigator for the Mongol Emperor is sent to a remote town to reexamine the case of a young woman who confessed to poisoning her future father-in-law. VERDICT This winning first-person narrative is just the ticket for crime fiction readers who like humor mixed with their history. Morson, author of the Master William Falconer series, brings a fresh dimension to the medieval mystery with his setting. Zuliani is a likable protagonist whose ability to run a counterscam makes for a clever, intricate puzzle. A prime readalike would be Gary Corby's ancient Greece series.

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