Back to China

As I mentioned in a previous entry (1 April, no fool) I read a book by Qiu Xiaolong. I quite liked the cadre poet/policeman Chen. So I ordered the other two books my local library has and bought the second in the series (which obviously my library doesn't have, for some unknown reason). The second book "A Loyal Character Dancer" has an American US Marshal of the feminine sort as a main character (reminds me of Peter May's China books). The third book "When Red is Black" features the loyal Sergeant Yu (and his wife who helps him by reading books and making literary comments) who investigates the murder of Yin who was in love with Yang (is this a transparent kind of thing?). Both books are enjoyable and full of the atmosphere of China moving away from the destruction of the cultural revolution towards the economic-wonder status many see in today's China. I like the characters very much. They are quite different from those in more "normal" detective novels. Now I have to wait until my library gets the last book back from its current borrower, but always something to look forward to!