Death of a Red Heroine

Inspector Chen Series, Book 1

By: Qiu Xiaolong

Narrated by: David Shih

Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

Qiu Xiaolong's Anthony Award-winning debut introduces Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police.

A young "national model worker," renowned for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up dead in a Shanghai canal.

As Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau struggles to trace the hidden threads of her past, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. Chen must tiptoe around his superiors if he wants to get to the bottom of this crime, and risk his career-perhaps even his life-to see justice done.

©2000 Qiu Xiaolong (P)2017 Tantor

Exhausting

So much for western bourgeois decadence- sex sells
I wouldn’t recommend this book other than a slight glimpse of what is headed down the road for cultural reassignment in the good old us of a

worth it for the history

Narrator David Shih is pretty good, but the storyline is far too slow-moving for the first half. I appreciated the picture of Chinese history, along with the subtleties, and terrors, of party politics. Qiu’s perspective is valuable, and I will read more to see if his plots get better, and clearer.

interesting for cultural context.

the story is nteresting for cultural context. but the investigation itself lacked suspense and intrigue.

interesting insight into Chinese an Chines Culture

The book was a nice peek into Chinese culture and how PRC society functions. The ending had a different version of a plot twist; but nevertheless, it illustrated well how the government twist things to continue it's control over the population. The added literary references an added bonus.

Very good!

The story keeps your interest until the very end.. But it is also intriguing because of its description of everyday life in the 1990's in Communist China . There is tension between the character's desire to live an honorable life seeking justice and what is "in the best interests of the Party". Also notable in presenting both modern and traditional poetry and descriptions of food.

Interesting but slow

Not really a detective story but rather a police procedural novel with insight into the impact of communist party struggle between old and new. A bit sad as recently in China. the party has grown in power.

Murder, politics and poetry

Slow start, but as the story unfolds the mementum builds. The Chief Inspector is a likable character, a poet at heart and also very committed to solving the murder case.
I gained a lot of insight on the culture and values in China.

China in depth

Along with a good detective story we get lots of details on food: how wonderful green onions smell floating in soup; how a snake looks when it’s skinned. Politics: which it turns out is the same everywhere. And poetry: lots of poetry.

Keep going, it’s worth it

A fine police procedural but full of unusual things since it is in China in 1990. Slow moving, but worth it for the building up of a fine cast of characters, especially our detective Chen. In the mode of P D James who gets a shoutout, Chen is also a published young poet and translator of TS Eliot and Agatha Christie into Chinese. If you know China, it’s catnip—if you don’t, well, what better way to gain insight into another country’s finely tuned mores and deadly politics than an intricate detective novel?

it was okay

I started with the first in the series The Mysteries of Inspector Chen which I loved.

The narrator was changed so it took me a little longer to get into this one. it almost didn't "feel" like the same Inspector Chen.


I enjoyed it and will start the third one today.