Midnight in Peking

The Murder That Haunted the Last Days of Old China

De: Paul French

Narrado por: Crawford Logan

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Paul French's Midnight in Peking, a gripping, true murder mystery story read by the actor Crawford Logan.

Who killed Pamela Werner?

On a frozen night in January 1937, in the dying days of colonial Peking, a body was found under the haunted watchtower. It was Pamela Werner, the teenage daughter of the city's former British consul Edward Werner. Her heart had been removed.

A horrified world followed the hunt for Pamela's killer, with a Chinese-British detective team pursuing suspects including a blood-soaked rickshaw puller, the Triads, and a lascivious grammar school headmaster. But the case was soon forgotten amid the carnage of the Japanese invasion... by all but Edward Werner. With a network of private investigators and informers, he followed the trail deep into Peking's notorious Badlands and back to the gilded hotels of the colonial Quarter.

Some 75 years later, deep in the Scotland Yard archives, British historian Paul French accidentally came across the lost case file prepared by Edward Werner. Unveiling an undercover sex cult, heroin addicts and disappearing brothels, the truth behind the crime can now be told - and is more disturbing than anyone could imagine.

Not just the unputdownable story of a savage murder, Midnight in Peking is a sweepingly evocative account of the end of an era.

Reseñas de la Crítica

An instant true crime classic. Grips from the first page to the last (David Peace, author of Red Riding and The Damned United)

Fascinating and irresistible. I couldn't put it down (John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)

Written in the style of a gripping murder mystery, but all the facts are true (Kirsty Lang)

Engrossing true crime whodunnit... A terrific read (Andrew Holgate)

Not only does Mr French succeed in solving the crime, he resurrects a period that was filled with glitter as well as evil

French has an easygoing prose style... well chosen quotes bring a new vigour and crispness... [He] succeeds in giving voice to a tragic quest for justice

It is the storytelling flair that marks Midnight in Peking so highly above the run-of-the-mill true crime stories: with its false leads and twists, it sucks the reader in like the best fiction

The shocking true tale, combined with prose you can't drag yourself away from, makes Midnight in Peking a work of non fiction as compulsive as any bestselling crime novel. It also brings justice at last for a young woman whose murder nearly went unsolved

Terrific, engrossing ... a gruesome tale of a hitherto forgotten case, and of the sheer tenacity of a grieving father (Caroline Sanderson)

true story fascinating

Where does Midnight in Peking rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

the top 8

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

really wanted to find out how it ends

Which scene was your favorite?

Description of old Peking and the Fox tower

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes

Any additional comments?

SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN CRIME FICTION

1st time listing to one of Paul Frenchs books and really enjoyed

Would highly recommend, great story and narration. After I I finished I immediately purchased another of this books.

Credit to Paul French for the writing

A great many Imperial Brits have had little to make them proud people. Protection and cover up in the past is just as horrible as it is today.
This is a story that had to be told. What I found so interesting was how much was discovered during the tumultuous '30's as Japan was invading China.
If not already done, this cries out to be made into a good mini series. A movie would have to delete too much detail.
China at the time was a home to Russians having escapied the Revolution, Germans the increasing horror of the Nazis, the fall of Emperors, the rise of greedy capitalists and the hopes of the Red Army and the Long March. All this and the old Triads. In amongst all of this one young woman is murdered. This is her story.