The Conspiracies of the Empire
The legendary Judge Dee Renjie returns, in this lyrical combination of mystery, history and ancient Chinese politics from the author of the renowned Inspector Chen mysteries

In Tang dynasty China, Empress Wu – seductive, ambitious and vindictive – rules with an iron fist. Her premier minister, Judge Dee Renjie, is honored to be trusted by her. But when she orders him to carry out an urgent investigation into the disappearance of disgraced poet Luo Binwang, he can’t see why the matter is of such vital importance.

Luo Binwang joined a doomed uprising against Her Majesty, and vanished after the final, bloody battle. Is he missing – or dead? Either way, now that the rebellion has been mercilessly quashed, what harm could a poor, elderly poet do?

Traveling out of the great capital of Chang’an, accompanied by his loyal manservant Yang, Judge Dee launches a painstaking investigation in the hopes of achieving what the empress’ secret police could not. But the journey is marred by ill omens, and with death and disaster following his every step, Judge Dee soon begins to wonder if the empress trusts him as much as he thought . . .

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The Conspiracies of the Empire
The legendary Judge Dee Renjie returns, in this lyrical combination of mystery, history and ancient Chinese politics from the author of the renowned Inspector Chen mysteries

In Tang dynasty China, Empress Wu – seductive, ambitious and vindictive – rules with an iron fist. Her premier minister, Judge Dee Renjie, is honored to be trusted by her. But when she orders him to carry out an urgent investigation into the disappearance of disgraced poet Luo Binwang, he can’t see why the matter is of such vital importance.

Luo Binwang joined a doomed uprising against Her Majesty, and vanished after the final, bloody battle. Is he missing – or dead? Either way, now that the rebellion has been mercilessly quashed, what harm could a poor, elderly poet do?

Traveling out of the great capital of Chang’an, accompanied by his loyal manservant Yang, Judge Dee launches a painstaking investigation in the hopes of achieving what the empress’ secret police could not. But the journey is marred by ill omens, and with death and disaster following his every step, Judge Dee soon begins to wonder if the empress trusts him as much as he thought . . .

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The Conspiracies of the Empire

The Conspiracies of the Empire

by Qiu Xiaolong
The Conspiracies of the Empire

The Conspiracies of the Empire

by Qiu Xiaolong

Paperback(Main)

$18.99 
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Overview

The legendary Judge Dee Renjie returns, in this lyrical combination of mystery, history and ancient Chinese politics from the author of the renowned Inspector Chen mysteries

In Tang dynasty China, Empress Wu – seductive, ambitious and vindictive – rules with an iron fist. Her premier minister, Judge Dee Renjie, is honored to be trusted by her. But when she orders him to carry out an urgent investigation into the disappearance of disgraced poet Luo Binwang, he can’t see why the matter is of such vital importance.

Luo Binwang joined a doomed uprising against Her Majesty, and vanished after the final, bloody battle. Is he missing – or dead? Either way, now that the rebellion has been mercilessly quashed, what harm could a poor, elderly poet do?

Traveling out of the great capital of Chang’an, accompanied by his loyal manservant Yang, Judge Dee launches a painstaking investigation in the hopes of achieving what the empress’ secret police could not. But the journey is marred by ill omens, and with death and disaster following his every step, Judge Dee soon begins to wonder if the empress trusts him as much as he thought . . .


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781448317059
Publisher: Severn House
Publication date: 07/29/2025
Series: A Judge Dee Investigation , #2
Edition description: Main
Pages: 224
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Anthony Award winning author Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai and moved to Washington Universityin St Louis, US, to complete a PhD degree in comparative literature. After the Tiananmen tragedy in 1989 he stayed on in St Louis where he still lives with his wife. Qiu’s sold over two million copies of his Inspector Chen mysteries worldwide and been published in twenty languages. On top of his fiction, he is a prize-winning writer of poetry.

All the titles in the Inspector Chen series, including Hold Your Breath, China, have been dramatized in BBC Radio 4 productions.

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