Currently reading
Roman Blood
Progress:
171/401 pages
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child
Progress:
208/557 pages
Avant-gardes du XXe siècle: arts & littérature, 1905-1930
Caesar's Commentaries: On the Gallic War and On the Civil War
Les bûchers de Bocanegra
The Songs of the Kings
Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories: Volumes I and II
The Hobbit
Red Mandarin Dress: An Inspector Chen Novel (Inspector Chen Novels)
A little above average for this series. Inspector Chen has a mid-life, mid-career, conscience crisis. Caught in between a financial scandal investigation that he doesn't want to investigate and a series of murder dubbed the "first" serial killer of Shanghai, Chen breaks down and hides behind the pretext of going back to academia. Yu is left holding the bag and to deal with the police politics. But Chen can't seem to hide from reality and is dragged back into investigating both cases. I liked the old Cultural Revolution Shanghai plot points but I got bored fast with Chen's term paper inner monologues about "femme fatale" and how women are just demon if they dare show any passion. The whole term paper did have a place in the plot eventually but it bored me. The plot was predictable. I read Qiu for the characters and his depiction of China and life in Shanghai, this book focused too much on the mystery/murder part and left out the good parts of the life of a detective in China.
