Chief Inspector Chen Cao never had a choice about his career. A poet by training, he was assigned to the Shanghai Police Department after college. To his own surprise, he became an excellent detective, and now he's in line to take over the top political position in the department. Which is why the Party has chosen him for the investigation into the death of Zhou Keng.

Zhou Keng was running the Shanghai Housing Development Committee when a number of his corrupt practices were exposed. Removed from his position and placed into detention, he apparently hanged himself while under guard.

The Party is anxious to have Zhou's death declared a suicide, but the sequence of events doesn't quite add up. Now Chen will have to decide what to do - follow the party line, or seek the justice his position requires and risk angering powerful people...

"Xiaolong's astute rendering of the many contradictions of contemporary Chinese life centres on the brilliant Inspector Chen . . . A series that might well get you hooked." - Sunday Telegraph

"Atmospheric and rich in behind the scenes detail . . . Morse of the Far East." - Independent

"Chen is a great creation, an honourable man in a world full of deception and treachery." - Guardian

"The first police whodunnit written by a Chinese author in English and set in contemporary China . . . its quality matches its novelty." - The Times

"The usual enjoyable mix of murder, poetry and contradictions of contemporary Chinese culture. Chen is a splendid creation." - Independent on Sunday

"A vivid portrait of modern Chinese society . . . full of the sights, sounds and smells of Shanghai . . . A work of real distinction." - Wall Street Journal

"Qiu Xiaolong is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of modern literary crime fiction. His Inspector Chen mysteries dazzle as they entertain, combining crime with Chinese philosophy, poetry and food, Triad gangsters and corrupt officials." - Canberra Times, Australia

"Gripping . . . Chen stands in a class with Martin Cruz Smith's Russian investigator, Arkady Renko, and P.D. James's Scotland Yard inspector, Adam Dalgliesh." - Publishers Weekly

"Wonderful." - Washington Post