The railway conspiracy

Review by Booklist Review

Late summer, London, 1924. "It seems every tale of Dee Ren Jie begins with a fight." In a spectacular opening scene, Judge Dee and his sidekick and chronicler Lao She are in an unusually choreographed engagement to recover a stolen artifact. Dee is disguised as Springheel Jack, a British urban legend--a menacing figure in a hideous mask, able to make extraordinary leaps. The pair, who provide a fresh and invigorating take on the Holmes and Watson trope, subsequently find themselves enmeshed in a conspiracy surrounding the proposed Chinese Eastern Railway involving communist revolutionaries, or possibly counterrevolutionaries, from Russia, China, and Japan. This makes for a rollicking good tale including numerous foggy and furtive pursuits, illicit morgue activity, truncheon-wielding platoons of bobbies, karate death touches vs. Iron Wire style hand-to-hand combat, dagger-wielding Cossacks, black-scorpion-venom-seasoned whips, and cyanide-laced mooncakes. Sergeant Hoong Liang, borrowed from Van Gulik's original Dee stories as well as assorted historical figures from Zhou Enlai to Bertrand Russell, join forces with the duo and help make for an immersive read. This is book two in the series, after the well-received The Murder of Mrs. Ma (2024), and the cliffhanger ending promises more to follow.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Rozan and Nee's fiendishly clever second whodunit featuring Tang Dynasty magistrate Judge Dee (after The Murder of Mr. Ma) establishes the series' staying power. In 1924, Judge Dee returns to London from China and meets with his friend, Professor Lao She, just in time to tackle a pair of cases with international ramifications. First, the duo successfully tracks down a stolen Chinese mace on behalf of businesswoman Wu Ze Tian. To thank them, Wu hosts a banquet with high society guests, including Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank director A.G. Stephen. Partway through the dinner, Stephen steers the conversation toward China's future on the international stage and details of the country's controversial Eastern Railway. Two days later, he turns up dead. Then another murder, with eerie echoes of the first, set Dee and Lao on the hunt for a killer who may have a stake in China's railway project. The authors maintain a lively pace without sacrificing character development or plot plausibility. It's a fair-play treat for mystery readers who prefer their deduction with a dash of adrenaline. Agent: Josh Getzler, HG Literary. (Apr.)

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

The theft of a dragon-taming mace leads Judge Dee Ren Jie and his colorful sidekicks to a multinational conspiracy rooted in 1924 London. Disguising himself as the fantasy villain Springheel Jack, Dee finds recovering the mace from Count Vladimir Voronoff and his Japanese conspirator, Isaki, child's play, even as his capers bewilder his friends and helpers: Professor Lao She, pickpocket Jimmy Fingers, and Sgt. Hoong. But returning the mace to the merchant Wu Ze Tian only complicates the problems Dee had hoped to resolve. Voronoff insists from his prison cell that Madam Wu had given him the mace he's accused of stealing. Although Madam Wu throws an elaborate party to thank Dee, one of her distinguished guests, leading banker A.G. Stephen, is poisoned shortly afterward; a Communist Party rally Lao attends leads to another murder; and a bombing during the Autumn Moon Festival claims six more lives. Slowly but surely, Dee perceives the outlines of a monstrous plot to overturn the Russian revolution and reinstall the czar, shore up the power of the Japanese emperor, and, most concerning for Dee, anoint the treacherous military Commander Zhang Zuo Lin, emperor of China. In a new world order in which Dee and his comrades can trust neither rabid Communists nor the equally blinkered nationalists arrayed against them, they must depend on Dee's storied mental acuity--and their own impressive talents for martial arts combat. Though readers will know how this history turns out, it's fascinating to watch the conflict of ritual and revolution. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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