Having just seen the movie City of Life and Death about the Rape of Nanking, the historical setting was both familiar and haunting. This is really more historical novel than mystery, but the story is interesting and the chapters intriguing,- if a bit remote. The characters are fully formed, even if, as the reader, you never feel any real connection to them and that is a flaw. Although this was classed as a mystery and there is a thread of mystery in the plot, this is more straight historical fiction than mystery. ( )

I feel I should have enjoyed this book more than I did.
Set in 1937 Hong Kong , this novel shows interesting insight into the colonialism of that time, as well as the Japan occupation of Manchuria (in China).
The main character Leah Kolbe is left alone after the death of her father, a man who'd been involved in dubious enterprises of antiquities and likely smuggling. His passion for Chinese antiquities was a legacy she shared; however it also bought political and criminal espionage with it. That sleazier world was one she was also forced to share in order to manage her life without his protection in the prim, oh-so-controlled and casually racist colonial English occupied Hong Kong.

All my tags for this book show it has so much to catch my interest. However I just didn't like the main character and could not empathise with her.
It was a good book, an excellent debut novel by Australian author Caroline Petit, but has missed being a great book. And it could have been.