Hold Your Breath, China

by Qiu Xiaolong

Overview

Chief Inspector Chen is assigned to investigate a group of environmental activists trying to tackle the pollution issues in China. The case is supposed to be simple, but it is complicated by Chen having history with the leader of the group. Meanwhile Detective Yu is on the trail of a serial murderer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727890436
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	06/02/2020
Series:	An Inspector Chen mystery , #10
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.80(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 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.

Editorial Reviews

"Fascinating... Xiaolong writes with both urgency and grace about modern China is another well-crafted mystery"

Booklist Starred Review

"Fascinating... Xiaolong writes with both urgency and grace about modern China is another well-crafted mystery"

Booklist Starred Review

2020-03-15
A veteran Shanghai inspector monitors a potentially dangerous group of environmental activists while his sidekick matches wits with a serial killer.

Though lately out of favor with the Communist Party, Chief Inspector Chen Cao is still the man to call when a serial killer is baffling Shanghai police. New victims are appearing every week. Chen is intrigued enough to take the case even though he’s been assigned a much more complex task, one suited to his poetic soul. With the air pollution worsening in Shanghai, the government is worried about the increasing power of an attractive activist named Yuan Jing and particularly about the documentary film she is preparing. Comrade Secretary Zhao wants Chen to collect as much damaging information on her as he can. When Chen shares these new assignments with his partner, Detective Yu Guangming, they agree to split the two cases, Yu handling the murder probe and Chen digging into Yuan’s world. Though forensic evidence indeed points to a serial killer, Yu can’t figure out the common denominator among the victims or the motive for the murders. Chen’s investigation prompts him to compose poetry with an environmental theme. As Yu aggressively assembles the evidence explaining the murders, he shares his progress with Chu, who succeeds in infiltrating Yuan Jing’s group but has a hard time squaring his ethics with Zhao’s desires.

Inspector Chen’s 10th mystery effectively uses the genre to explore China’s current pollution crisis.

Kirkus Reviews