Better than the first book in the series. Inspector/Poet Chen searches for a woman who has disappeared. Via the mystery, the author explores China's dive into capitalism and its attendant issues such as inequality, human trafficking, gangs, political corruption and the treatment of women. Really enjoyed the poetic interludes and the descriptions of the Shanghai geography and food. If you like Donna Leon's Brunetti series, you'll probably appreciate this one. ( )

Book two in the Chief Inspector Chen Cao mystery series set in Shanghai. This one starts with a body found in Bund Park. But before Chen had really get started on investigating this murder, he’s tasked with a politically sensitive assignment. A U.S. Marshall, Catherine Rohn, is on her way to China to collect an important witness who has now disappeared. Chen must show Rohn a “modern China” and also find the missing woman.

I like this series. Chen is a complicated man. Educated and a poet, he walks the tightrope between political correctness and professional police duty. Like a master of chess, he is always thinking several steps ahead. While Xiaolong gives the reader the same view of clues as Chen has, the reader is not always privy to Chen’s thinking about what he has observed.

This makes for a more slow-moving work than is typical for mysteries. But I didn’t mind that so much. I’ve been to Shanghai and other cities in China, and I appreciated the time spent on the history of this complex culture.

I really like Chen’s “apprentice,” Detective Yu, as well as Yu’s father “Old Hunter,” and hope they’ll continue to make appearances in future installments. ( )

Esta novela retoma las andanzas protagonizadas por el Inspector Chen en su anterior gran éxito, Muerte de una heroína roja. En esta ocasión, Chen ha de investigar la misteriosa desaparición de la bailarina Wen Liping durante su regreso a China desde Estados Unidos. La vigorosa trama policial propicia la radiografía de un país en plena mutación, sirviéndose de un personaje que está ya en las antologías del género: un amante de la literatura que resuelve intrincados enigmas en tanto recita proverbios de Confucio y moderna poesía china.

A complex story, ends with melancholy. ( )

The second book in the Inspector Chen series follows a few months after the first and finds the detective taking on the case of a gang-related murder in his favorite park and also a case of a missing woman, who is wanted by the American government as part of a plea bargain for her husband's testimony against a human trafficking trial in the states. Chen must work alongside an US Marshal and his initial frustration at the need to be her glorified tourist guide turns to something else as they begin to become friends, and possibly more than friends.
I thought the pacing in this one was a little slower than in the first book and at the same time I had trouble keeping the various details of the story sorted out in my head. Still, I like Inspector Chen and may eventually continue with the series. ( )