I enjoy Inspector Chen as a pleasant past-time, where I get to know a respected investigator and learn a bit about Chinese culture at the same time.
It's been a few years since I read most of the Chen series. During this Covid virus time of overwhelming "news", I sought out Xiaolong as a respite, which achieved my goal.
I recommend both Chen and Xiaolong. ( )

El inspector jefe Chen Cao se encuentra en una situación delicada: dado que es uno de los policías más respetados de Shanghai, el Partido le encomienda cerrar el caso de la turbia muerte de Zhou Keng, quien dirigía el Comité para el Desarrollo Urbanístico de Shanghai cuando varias de sus prácticas corruptas se denunciaron en internet. Tras ser despojado de su cargo y sometido a una detención extrajudicial, al parecer Zhou se ahorcó mientras se encontraba bajo custodia. Pese a que los dirigentes del Partido aguardan con impaciencia que la muerte de Zhou sea declarada suicidio y que el célebre inspector jefe Chen avale dicha conclusión, algunas piezas no encajan en la secuencia de acontecimientos. Chen tendrá que decidir: o renuncia a que se haga justicia, o investiga la muerte de Zhou como posible asesinato, con lo que se arriesga a incomodar a los poderes fácticos y, por tanto, a poner en peligro su propia carrera profesional y política.

This was a painful and boring end to an otherwise enjoyable series. The books end almost literally mid-sentence as though the author was contracted to write a set amount of words and once reached simply stopped writing. ( )

ENIGMA OF CHINA is not just a murder mystery, but also an exploration of Chinese history and culture. It also explores the role, even in China, of social media, of crowd-sourced investigation, so-called "human-flesh" searches, triggered in this case by the release of a photograph of Zhou Keng with a pack of very expensive brand cigarettes sitting on the table in front of him. The irony does not escape Chief Inspector Chen who has also accepted gifts in kind from Big Bucks customers.

But in Zhou's case a number of other examples of corruption have been unearthed, including a batch of compromising sex photographs. But it still doesn't seem very likely that he would have committed suicide. Chen's curiosity is further piqued when a police colleague is run down and killed outside the Party newspaper headquarters. Chen realises that he could very well share Wei's fate if he doesn't tread carefully.

Xiaolong paints a fascinating picture of life in Shanghai with vast economic and social gulfs between ordinary people and those who have access to privelege. ( )

There are three mysteries in this novel: who killed the housing administrator, who killed the detective investigating the murder of the housing administrator, and who launched the social media blizzard that revealed the scandal that lead to the administrator's death. throughout the investigation, the author inserts many observations on the current politics and hypocrisy in "socialism with Chinese characteristics" along with classical poetry, snippets of neo-Confucian philosophy and a culinary tour of Shaoxing, and the leaky censorship of the Chinese Internet. The political dangers to Chen Cao in resolving the murders are readily apparent--and they are left disappointingly unresolved--but the Internet social media post that provokes the initial murder is elegantly resolved. The unresolved murders create an opening for the future--as tension with official society and the need to maintain social harmony builds in Inspector Chen Cao. ( )