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A Perfect Crime

A Yi,

Anna Holmwood (Translator)

3.18 · Rating details · 451 ratings · 103 reviews

A chilling literary thriller about a motiveless murder in provincial China.

On a normal day in provincial China, a teenager goes about his regular business, but he's also planning the brutal murder of his only friend. He lures her over, strangles her, stuffs her body into the washing machine and flees town, whereupon a perilous game of cat-and-mouse begins.

A shocking ...more

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Hardcover, 224 pages

Published May 7th 2015 by Point Blank (first published February 1st 2012)

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CHINESE crime noir, detective mysteries and thrillers set in CHINA

86 books — 22 voters

Modern Chinese Literature

73 books — 21 voters

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Average rating 3.18 ·

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· 451 ratings · 103 reviews

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Aug 18, 2015 Adeeb rated it it was amazing

This was a pleasant surprise. I was drawn by the title, synopsis, and cover at the bookstore and thought I would buy it. The book was just translated to English and did not have many reviews. Oh booooooy. This was SOOOOOO good. It gave me chills, goosebumps, and creeps.

I am still scarred by this book. It sounds a message. It will eat you alive. The book is not a light read; in fact it is very very dark. You don't get to see through the mind of a very creepy killer everyday!

I can't review this ...more

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Dec 04, 2016 Imi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, translations, contemporary, crime, thriller, kindle, chinese, authors-of-colour, read-in-2016, 2016-top-reads

This is not a mystery as you may expect from a novel about a murder. From the get go, the reader knows who the killer is, how his victim was chosen, how he planned the crime and his escape, and, most importantly, we know his motives, why he decided to commit such a gruesome, unforgivable act, even if his motives seem incomprehensible to any decent, moral human being. We know all this because the novel is told from the killer's perspective.

That's not to say this book doesn't raise any questions. ...more

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Aug 18, 2015 Antonomasia rated it really liked it

Shelves: crime, novella, china, decade-2010s, 2015, el

Having forgotten, or not read, the blurb, I started this newly-translated Chinese novella expecting a detective story. In fact, the narrator is a late teenage boy (whom we later learn is named Su), and he's intent on committing a murder, though yet to settle on a victim. His tone is disarmingly calm and matter-of-fact rather than sinister: I never doubted, for instance, that the narrator was reliable - and for a while it was almost bizarre when he mentioned violent acts, because they didn't fit Having forgotten, or not read, the blurb, I started this newly-translated Chinese novella expecting a detective story. In fact, the narrator is a late teenage boy (whom we later learn is named Su), and he's intent on committing a murder, though yet to settle on a victim. His tone is disarmingly calm and matter-of-fact rather than sinister: I never doubted, for instance, that the narrator was reliable - and for a while it was almost bizarre when he mentioned violent acts, because they didn't fit with the person one would otherwise expect from the way he spoke. (Reading whilst tired and dizzy only added to the sense of unreality.) When violence isn't on the agenda, he doesn't sound consumed by hate and despising, and he has a reasonable understanding of some others, alongside a level of disaffection that sounds fairly standard for a teenager from a difficult family. His arrogant irritation with some people is similar to Raskolnikov's, but not as strong or frequent, and not delirious. This tone is probably more realistic than the narrator whose every paragraph signposts their wickedness: news reports about kids who commit major violent crimes often indicate people didn't think they were that bad before.

A Perfect Crime is also an excellent piece of writing and translation, combining the clear, simple prose of the best thrillers and crime fiction with imaginative metaphors grounded in Chinese mythology and landscape. There was never a word out of place - except for one minor continuity error relating to a mobile phone battery. It's the style that gets this book four stars: not having read a great deal of Chinese fiction, the local detail was very interesting, but originality of plot was not its strong point - aspects of the story were quite similar to Camus' L'Etranger.

Su's motivation could be considered existential; as he says in the final chapters (view spoiler)

Su comes from what appears to be in British terms a lower middle class family, one that has had mixed fortunes, and at the opening of the story lives with his inconsistently strict aunt. This kind of farming-out to relatives, familiar from Victorian novels, implicitly sounds like it is still relatively common. As Su goes on the run through the Chinese countryside, we hear incidental details about, among other things, shopping and the imagery that sometimes fuels it, conditions on trains, frequent compulsory use of ID, the cheaper types of hotel, and the living conditions of impoverished peasant farmers and their families - who in some ways, to Western eyes, live as if in a different century. It is clear that the police can be brutal: to the innocent - beating up an unwell old farmer who accidentally knocked over an officer whilst rushing to the loo, for example - as well as towards those who have committed serious crimes. The following spoiler relates to material already spoilt by the blurb: (view spoiler)

A very fast and good quality read that also gave an intriguing picture of contemporary China, even if classic literature has told stories of similarly destructive young men before.

Interview with the translator here in which she highlights some of the political aspects of the book. ...more

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May 18, 2015 Lou rated it it was ok

Shelves: giveaways, chinese-literature

In any story, I like to have diverse POV, so bad characters are always worthy to read. In this book, however, the killer is empty and boring; although I think that his motivation was interesting and had a philosophical side.

The story doesn't give a reason to keep reading, and if you read the first chapters and then skip right to the final chapter, you won't miss anything.

I won this book through GoodReads and I thank to the author for providing me this copy but this fact didn't influence the ...more

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Feb 07, 2017 Leah Bayer rated it liked it

Shelves: totally-japan-and-asia, in-translation

This is the story of a teenage boy who hates his life and decides to kill somebody. That's... that's pretty much it. He plans a murder, commits a murder, goes on the run, etc. It's exactly what it says on the box. And, like much Asian crime fiction, this is whydunnit rather than a whodunnit--because obviously we know who did it and how it was done because our protagonist is the criminal. The core "mystery" of the novel is why he committed the crime, because he's very vague about his intentions. ...more

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May 16, 2019 Andy Weston rated it really liked it

Initially a notable book in that it’s the shortest author’s surname that I have ever read.
Also though, and more seriously, it’s the sort of book I seek out, original crime writing. The book has a clever title, and is an unsettling melange of adolescent rage, escapism and the consequent shocking media reaction. The author has used his own background in law enforcement to delve into the troubled mind of young man barely out of boyhood. If we can’t see the evil in him straight away, Yi’s narrator ...more

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Apr 12, 2018 Laura rated it did not like it

Shelves: all-the-books

Disappointing. I was initially drawn in by the stark prose, hypnotic in its simplicity.

But this is just another story of the mind of a psychopath. It’s done much better in Fight Club & American Psycho. And if you want disaffected teen boys... well, they’re everywhere.

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Jan 25, 2016 Jay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: won-through-giveaway, on-hold, own-physical-copy, reviewed

I have received this book through Goodreads Giveaway :)

I was looking through the list on Goodreads Giveaway when this cover caught my attention. I read the blurb, decided it's not my thing and kept scrolling. Then I came across it again and the cover was just too eye catching! So I read the blurb again, realised it's not my thing (again), yet decided to enter. Nothing to lose, right?

The next day I got the "Congratulations" email and I knew, I KNEW it would be Perfect Crime by A Yi.

Now, I like ...more

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Jun 11, 2015 Ashley Mae rated it liked it

3/5 Stars. A unique and interesting take on the traditional crime novel.

"Whenever I started something, I would picture its inevitable ending."

Review originally posted on Fictional Living.

Set in China, A Perfect crime is a first-person telling from a bored Chinese student. In his need for excitement, the boy carries out a plan to brutally murder a fellow classmate, leaving her in a washing machine inside the apartment he shared with his aunt.

Now he's on the run for his crimes, but how long will ...more

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May 16, 2015 Kimbofo rated it really liked it

Shelves: translated-fiction, crime

I do love a dark crime novel — and A Yi’s A Perfect Crime is probably one of the darkest I’ve read in a long time.

Set in China, it follows the exploits of a disaffected 19-year-old student who decides he’s so bored he needs to do something to make his life more exciting. Where others might go on a holiday or take up a new hobby, this nameless young man decides to murder a fellow student by luring her into the apartment he shares with his aunt. Here, he brutally stabs her to death and then shoves ...more

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Jan 29, 2016 Vanessa rated it did not like it

Honestly? If you are an adult - don't bother. Teenager with issues plans and murders friend for no good reason. Flees, then lets himself be arrested and tried. Reason for murder unclear other than (possibly) because he can, someone at home pissed him off, he hates his family, he hates everyone, and craves attention.

Made no sense whatsoever!

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Jul 28, 2019 Ankita Chauhan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Good storyline. Bad translation.

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Dec 14, 2018 Moby rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The blurb got me hooked. I like how it started, the plot was intense but fascinating. It was predictable too but reading how the main character trying his best to plot 'a perfect crime' just out of boredom and escapism really got me staying to the narrative till the end. A very straightforward murder case, nothing fancy or mysterious even the way it was planned was just out of the blue-- perhaps this was more a story of the murderer point of view about his own crime. The reason was vague, he was ...more

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May 18, 2019 Dennis rated it did not like it

I'd completely forgotten that I'd read this book until I came across it and realized I'd never noted it in Good Reads. I think this was because I found this book so boring and annoying to read that it was easy to pass over the egoist, nihilistic vision of the narrator. There's no doubt in my mind that it mirrors the attitude of a lot of juvenile murderers but it felt more like the writer, who worked in criminal justice for many years, needed to purge his system of all the ugliness he'd seen. To ...more

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Apr 10, 2016 Tonstant Weader rated it liked it

A Yi’s A Perfect Crime is one of those novels that is certain to draw comparisons to Crime and Punishment or American Psycho. As a first person narrative by a killer who kills for reasons other than greed, love, jealousy or any of the other simple motivations that give us comfort, it falls into that small collection of books that feature murderers whose crimes are presumed to reflect the alienating forces of society.

None of these stories would be interesting if narrated by investigators or any A Yi’s A Perfect Crime is one of those novels that is certain to draw comparisons to Crime and Punishment or American Psycho. As a first person narrative by a killer who kills for reasons other than greed, love, jealousy or any of the other simple motivations that give us comfort, it falls into that small collection of books that feature murderers whose crimes are presumed to reflect the alienating forces of society.

None of these stories would be interesting if narrated by investigators or any third party. Their intensity and their attraction lie in the conceit that we are entering the mind of a murderer, seeing why they do what they do. In this, I think A Yi is perhaps more successful than either Dostoyevsky or Bret Easton Ellis because despite the efforts of the Chinese courts to impose reason on this murder, he really allows it to be about nothing other than boredom and the thrill of being a murderer. This nameless killer has no moral theory to justify his act, he is just bored.

Like many unpopular high school kids, A Yi’s murderer assuages his feelings of rejection and loneliness with contempt. Who would want to be friends with those people anyway? He is bored, he wants more from life, excitement, the thrill of the chase, so he resolves to kill Kong Jie, the one classmate who is friendly and sympathetic. He argues there is a purity in choosing her, because she is such a good person. That may be a self aggrandizing explanation as it is more likely she was the only person he could persuade to come to his home.

And of course he kills her, goes on the run and is terribly frustrated by the incompetence of the police efforts to capture him. At times, it seems almost farcical. Where is the thrill when no one is close to catching him? He even goes to the police station to charge his phone. Eventually, with diligent efforts on his part, he is caught, there is a trial and there we see the desperate efforts by those who represent society as a whole to find a reason for the murder. This is all too human. We do not want to accept that people kill for the thrill of it. We want there to be some childhood trauma, some slight, some need, some reason, no matter how tenuous. We want to know why.

A Perfect Crime is a Chinese novel by a Beijing writer and it is his first work to be translated and published in English. In some ways it seems quaint, this need by the police and the court to understand the motivation, their shock and revulsion that someone would murder out of boredom. Here in the United States, we are inured to that kind of perpetrator. Leopold and Loeb were shocking but that’s eighty years ago. When our narrator is disappointed there is a bigger wanted poster for a man who killed seventeen people, he sounds just like most of the far too long list of killers who kill for excitement and celebrity. They are common as dirt.

This is one of those books that is written with a fast, propulsive prose that keeps you reading. For all its grim subject matter and brutality, there are moments of with and humor, even a bit of slapstick when the killer, fleeing police does a classic “he went that away” sort of misdirection. It is short, which makes it something you can finish in one bite if you have a couple hours to read. That is good, because it is discomfiting to be in the head of someone so callous and enraged. The narrator is observant of people, seems to have a keen insight at times. He is interesting even while being morally repugnant.

I cannot say I enjoyed A Perfect Crime, but I don’t think A Yi wrote it for anyone to enjoy. It is a book that asks us to think about society, about why we produce these monsters. Given the rate at which we do it here in the US, it’s a good question.

A Perfect Crime was provided by LibraryThing which holds a monthly drawing for review copies of recent releases.

http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpres... ...more

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Jun 03, 2016 Georgette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I needed a couple of days to recover from this novel. By the end of it, I was drained yet enthralled. My reader-self was in pieces on the floor, but my inner psychopath was as delighted as the day I discovered The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal Lecter. Hey, if a certain Ms Steele can have an inner goddess, I can have an inner psychopath.

The premise is as it says on the tin - boy is tired of living, brutally murders a pretty and popular classmate, and goes on the run. Eventually he is caught, I needed a couple of days to recover from this novel. By the end of it, I was drained yet enthralled. My reader-self was in pieces on the floor, but my inner psychopath was as delighted as the day I discovered The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal Lecter. Hey, if a certain Ms Steele can have an inner goddess, I can have an inner psychopath.

The premise is as it says on the tin - boy is tired of living, brutally murders a pretty and popular classmate, and goes on the run. Eventually he is caught, or rather, he turned himself in because he figured the cops are too slow and dumb to actually catch him. While the drama played out around him, he clinically toys with the China justice system and everyone swarming around his case - his mother, his aunt, his victim's mother, the investigating officers, the journalists.

He spends a lot of time alone and contemplates suicide to end the boredom of endless waiting. We sit with him inside his head for the entire ride and sometimes there's nothing interesting going on in there, which I suspect is rather different from how traditional crime novels work. I also suspect this contributed to the number of reviews saying that the second half of the story was slow. Usually the action and frenzy builds towards the end of the novel when the heroes are closing in on the criminal before he gets away. In this case, Su (which is the boy's name, mentioned perhaps just once in the entire novel) wasn't interested in getting away. He just wanted them to solve the puzzle of why he did it and execute him already, and holy shit they're taking bloody forever.

While his act was completely premeditated, we don't get a full grasp of why he did it until he explained it in the end. I admit that I'm not a fan of confessional monologues that run several pages, but I was pretty invested at this point and didn't mind that much. I found myself nodding along to his explanation (again with that inner psychopath thing).

This is the first time I've read a novel from China that I enjoyed. I've decided not to name names that made me stop, and call it a day here. ...more

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Sep 02, 2016 Seavling Lim rated it really liked it

This had been an interesting read. The writing (translation of the original Chinese version) was soooo smooothhhh, it was really easy to devour. The plot itself is quite interesting as well and the twisted mind of the mc is .. wait let me find a synonym for 'interesting'... it's uh.. fascinating, yes. I read it at my bestfriend's recommendation and he told me not to read the synopsis and just dive in, which was precisely what I did which I think made the experience really cool for me. I was so ...more

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Jun 26, 2018 Thomas rated it it was amazing

I didn't know what to expect from this, I had read others reviews and it sounded a good read. Wow, what a fantastic read, I thoroughly enjoyed it and completely ate it up, it flowed really well and before I know it I was through the book.

It is a crime from start to finish from the killer's point of view, the build up, the crime, being on the run and subsequent capture and trial. It is very disturbing how calm, casual and rational the narrator is. Treating it as someone writing about their day ...more

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Jun 26, 2015 Craig Allen rated it it was ok

I'll go 2.5 stars. This was a short book...so why did it take so long to finish? I almost quit it twice, but stopped to read other things before picking it back up again. It just didn't hook me...but I cared enough to eventually finish it so there's that. I will say, after finishing it, the last 30% or so was more interesting. The conclusion was very well done and pretty dark and twisted actually. It saved the book for me. If you suspend your disbelief for a bit, it's worth the read.

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Jan 04, 2017 dedd rated it did not like it

I was very disappointed with this book. The title is misleading. There is no perfect crime or much of any crime really. It should have been titled "the run" or "teenage angst" or some other thing. I got a feeling the author tried to follow the format of Camus's "The Stranger" but he failed miserably. Unbelievable that the book won some kind of an award. Such a waste of time.

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Jan 21, 2017 John rated it did not like it

I really didn't enjoy this book. It seemed rather pointless.

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Aug 17, 2019 Martin Roth rated it it was amazing

Review from Asia Thrills - https://asiathrills.com/a-perfect-cri...

I was about a quarter of the way through “A Perfect Crime” when I thought that I had encountered this story before.

It was just a couple of months ago that I read “Real World” by Japan’s Natsuo Kirino. That book, like this one, tells the story of a bored, alienated youth who commits murder for no real reason and then finds himself on the run.

It is scary to realize that this is how two of Asia’s most talented popular novelists, ...more

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Mar 28, 2018 Chris Angelis rated it liked it

My general impression is favorable – though only marginally so. It’s a short book, it flows easily, and there is enough psychological complexity to make a reader’s time worth while. However, in terms of genre, crime fiction fans must know that this book probably isn’t what they expect. Despite the author’s background, there is something peculiarly unrealistic in terms of police procedures and the judicial process.

To an extent, it might be a result of the narrative style (it is the protagonist ...more

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Jul 06, 2018 Nikki rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Originally called 浪和老鼠 (Wolf and Mouse), this murder story differentiates itself from its genre by holding the point of view of the murderer instead of with the police or detectives. As a person that prizes originality and out-of-the-cookie-cutter ideas, I enjoyed every single page of this short novel. There is no “fluff” to divert your imagination from exercising itself to portray these gruesome acts. The words the author provides give you the rawest picture that can last in your memory. I ...more

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Mar 24, 2017 Ciarán Williamson rated it liked it

I didn't hate or love this book. It was short and an easy read (and it seemed like a good translation from what I could tell) so it wasn't hard to get through, I just wasn't very interested in the character/s or the overall story. I pressed on, sort of enjoying the writing, mostly to find out how everything wound up but not having a lot of stock in what the outcome was. I would like to read more from the perspective of a sociopath and I always enjoy reading books that take place entirely in a ...more

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Jun 11, 2017 Moriartyandherbooks rated it did not like it

I just need to resign myself to the fact that no one will do "Follow the main character, someone who murders someone(s) due to a bit of an existential crises, and then their philosophical journey after committing these horrid events" as well as Dostoevsky does in Crime and Punishment (my absolute favorite book). Every time I read a plot like this since reading Crime and Punishment it reads as incredible forced and trying too hard. I know better now.

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Aug 26, 2018 micha rated it liked it

Shelves: china

A dark and brutal book by Chinese author A Yi, former police officer turned writer. A Perfect Crime is a book, written through the eyes of the young murderer. It's not entirely satisfying, as the final chapters of self-destruction in the courtroom drag on a little bit, but the first half of the book is a breathless depiction of a restless soul on the run.

3.5/5

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Jul 11, 2017 Jennifer rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: translated-works, china, crime

A young disaffected youth of nineteen in Beijing tells us the story about why he decided to murder his female classmate and go on the run, playing a cat and mouse game with the police. He is without empathy and living a hollow existence in the new China. Written by a former Chinese policeman turned writer, this story offers insight into a young sociopathic mind.

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Feb 12, 2018 Todayiamadaisy rated it liked it

A disaffected teenager somewhere in China decides to kill someone; this book takes us through his preparation, escape and trial. The teenager is lonely, bored and angry, and it certainly isn't fun being in his head, but he is depressingly believable. I can't say I enjoyed this, exactly, but it maintained my interest enough for me to read it in an afternoon.

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Jun 14, 2018 Skadi rated it really liked it

"I wanted to cry. If I knew someone was going to write such a shit poem, I wouldn't have killed her. "
This perfectly encapsulates this book for me. The main character is brutal in a calm, matter of fact way and his commentary on the Chinese society he lives in is cold and damning as he methodically carries out his simple plan to kill.

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About A Yi

A Yi

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A Yi is a Chinese writer living in Beijing. He worked as a police officer before becoming editor-in-chief of Chutzpah. He is the author of two collections of short stories and has published fiction in Granta and the Guardian. In 2010 he was shortlisted for the People’s Literature Top 20 Literary Giants of the Future.