A Loyal Character Dancer (Inspector Chen Cao #2) in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 12, 2014 Kay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: china, fiction, mystery-suspense-crime

I am quite enjoying this series, despite the fact that I seldom read series, or mystery novels in general much anymore. I sought these books out, however, since I'm taking a trip to China in a few months and had found previously that reading fiction based in the places I planned to travel was an easy way to learn about local culture. And in this regard, the Inspector Chen novels are quite rewarding.

Initially I was struck bey the similarities to the Inspector Morse novels, which also feature a " I am quite enjoying this series, despite the fact that I seldom read series, or mystery novels in general much anymore. I sought these books out, however, since I'm taking a trip to China in a few months and had found previously that reading fiction based in the places I planned to travel was an easy way to learn about local culture. And in this regard, the Inspector Chen novels are quite rewarding.

Initially I was struck bey the similarities to the Inspector Morse novels, which also feature a "fish out of water" detective of a literary bent who perseveres despite bureaucratic setbacks and his own self doubts. Like Morse, Chen has little luck with women, and his "successes" in solving cases often leave a bitter taste in his mouth. Like Morse, Chen has a working-class assistant, a family man with a doting wife and a child. And, like Morse, Chen's superior is politically savvy and often has to call him to heel to prevent him from stirring up political scandal.

But there the similarities end, and Chen is, at the end of the day, something that Morse is not. He is, in his own way, ambitious. And he is not given to the flashes of brilliant insight that Morse has, nor is he a devotee of puzzles. His main foible is a tendency to quote poetry -- his own and Tang dynasty poets, in particular, but then it seems at times as if all the characters in these novels spout poetry couplets, proverbs, party slogans, and aphorisms on a near continuous basis. Indeed, the Inspector Chen novels are a hefty steam trunk of Chinese cultural baggage, and it is through poetry and proverbs in particular that the author explores the workings of modern Shanghai.

Unfortunately, this can really bog the narrative down, and for the reader primarily interested in the mystery, I would imagine that it is an annoyance. For my part, the author's tendency to have the characters explain background to each other in detail (but which serves primarily to fill the reader in) is a more striking fault, for this dialogue comes across as unnatural and stiff. There is a great deal of cultural information central to each case which needs explaining, and this, in combination with the poetic interludes, gives the novels a peculiar opaque earnestness that bleeds over into the main character, Inspector Chen. He is, as the other characters in the novels frequently mention, enigmatic.

I'm now reading my third Inspector Chen novel, and to be honest the poetic images and necessary back story that must be presented in each novel are becoming a little stale. Although I'm still enjoying watching Inspector Chen at work, I'm feeling that unless some major development occurs that I'll part ways with him soon. For while I've enjoyed absorbing Chinese culture vicariously through him, it may be that there will be diminished returns from here on. Still, I am hoping that he will surprise me. I've grown fond of him.
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Jan 20, 2019 Tony rated it really liked it

Shelves: setting-asia, novels, crime

The second book in the Inspector Chen series is equal in many ways to outstanding predecessor, Death of a Red Heroine. Once again, the reader is drawn into an excellent mix of detective procedural and portrait of China in economic and social transition during the early '90s. Shanghai-based Inspector Chen is assigned to baby-sit a U.S. Marshal who has been sent to collect the wife of the key witness in a federal case against the smuggling of illegal immigrants into America. However, when the preg The second book in the Inspector Chen series is equal in many ways to outstanding predecessor, Death of a Red Heroine. Once again, the reader is drawn into an excellent mix of detective procedural and portrait of China in economic and social transition during the early '90s. Shanghai-based Inspector Chen is assigned to baby-sit a U.S. Marshal who has been sent to collect the wife of the key witness in a federal case against the smuggling of illegal immigrants into America. However, when the pregnant woman disappears without a trace, Chen, Detective Yu, and Marshal Catherine Rohn have only a week to track her down before the trial starts-and without his wife, the witness won't cooperate. At the same time, Chen insists on investigating the bloody murder of an unidentified man in Chen's favorite park (echoes of, or homage to, Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park).

Since Chen and Yu's histories were established in the first book, there is much less of their personal lives in this volume, which is a bit of a shame. There is also somewhat less about politics and the Party's influence on private life in this book. Instead the hidden hand of the triad gangs menaces Chen and his investigation, with unclear motives and unclear allegiances. In addition, the history and impact of the Cultural Revolution (a subject at the heart of the recent novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) becomes more directly relevant to the plot. Another main element is the proliferation of a "gray market" economy, where bribery and corruption are nibbling away at the Communist system. Distasteful as it is, Chen must involve himself with unsavory elements with no solid political backing in order to pursue his investigation, and indeed, possible leaks within his own department.

This sequel is quite good to be sure, however there is a running flaw which undermines it somewhat. The brilliance of the first book was in its complete immersion in time and place, by introducing an American outsider as a main character in this story, the author cheapens the experience somewhat. It instantly moves into the realm of "unlikely partners battling crime," which we have seen time and again in fiction and film. This is exacerbated by the rather stilted romantic tension between Chen and the American woman which always seemed rather forced to me. It's also unfortunate that near the end there is a plot contrivance whereby Chen makes an absolutely incredible blunder-it's such an unlikely mistake I had to stop and reread the passage three times to verify that I had understood it properly. Still, there are running mouthwatering descriptions of food, plenty couplets of classic Chinese poetry, and an exciting climax to finish things off. It's well worth reading, both as a crime novel and as a picture of China a decade ago. ...more

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