ARC review. I found the historic details of this book very interesting. I don't know much about Peking/Beijing in any period - honestly, I still don't feel I know much, since so much of the story is based on English records of the murder at the center of the story. (French does a good job of acknowledging, even pointing up the colonial bias, but that doesn't eliminate it. Worse, the main Chinese character proves duplicitous/unknowable towards the end of the book - reinforcing the image of the impenetrable East.) But I was hooked regardless, sucked into the world of the book for a full day, and I came out wanting to learn more about the place and period.