This is a collection of eight cases handled by Judge Dee.

Set back in the 600s in China, these short stories cover a ten year span of Judge Dee’s career.

Dee is not only a Master Judge, he also investigates the crimes he is presented with to find the persons responsible for the crimes.

In “Murder of the Lotus Pond,” an elderly poet is found murdered in the pavilion in the middle of a lotus pond on his property. It occurred at night with no known witnesses, except the frogs who live in the pond. “Frogs can’t talk” — or can they?

This is the second book of the Judge Dee Series and I’ve enjoyed both. It is illustrated with drawing in the style of the period to give the feeling of the era.

Reading of a different culture in a different time takes me into a new world. A bit of arm chair travelling. ( )

Entertaining collection of short stories featuring the investigating magistrate of T'ang Dynasty China. The stories are logical, and are full of historical colour, and are a quick and pleasant read. ( )

Eh. Mildly interesting mysteries, a lot of information about early Chinese culture (if it's accurate) but I'm not much interested in the subject, and a know-it-all detective. van Gulik is pretty good at seeding the information - there were only a couple stories where the answer depended on something I totally hadn't seen in the story, and several where I recognized what the clue was as soon as he began giving the answer. Still, I dislike know-it-all detectives (I don't like Sherlock Holmes, either), and while the setting is unusual it's not one that interests me. Mostly murders of various sorts, with motives ranging from covering up a crime to jealousy (though none of them were truly crimes of passion, they were all premeditated to one extent or another). Judge Dee also did a little vigilante justice now and then, lightening a charge for someone who made a bad choice but wasn't a bad person, and in one case blackmailing someone who wasn't actually guilty - of _that_ crime, at least - into aiding a victim. Glad I read it, doubt I'll ever reread. ( )

This is an enjoyable book, but I wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries. Van Gulik was raised in East Asia from early childhood and tutored in Mandarin from an early age. He served throughout Asia in the Dutch Diplomatic service and married a Chinese woman, so few people would be so ideally positioned to write works based on Chinese culture for Western audiences. As Van Gulik explains in his afterwards, Judge Dee is a real historical person who lived from A.D. 630 to 700 and contemporary "Chinese still consider him their master-detective, and his name is as popular with them as that of Sherlock Holmes is with us."

I first read the Judge Dee mysteries when a friend loaned me her Dee novels, so the only book in the series I bought and own is this one, an anthology of short stories very much akin to Arthur Conan Doyle's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes stories in flavor. Purely as mysteries I don't think these match the Sherlock Holmes stories such as "The Speckled Band," nor is the character of Dee quite so strong as Holmes, and Van Gulik's style is rather creaky. One reviewer called the language "stilted" and I rather agree. But the draw here is more the depiction of Chinese culture and history during the Tang Dynasty and on those terms I find the novels offer something unique and are well worth seeking out, and even though I don't think Van Gulik is strongest in this short form, these stories do display something of the appeal of those novels. The eight short stories are fine little puzzle pieces that turn on such things as an incense clock, a pawn ticket or croaking frogs in a lotus pond and takes you through all levels of Chinese society from great generals and rich merchants to prostitutes, beggars and street performers. If you're at all curious about things Chinese, you might find these just your cup of (green) tea. Although I'd start with the first book chronologically if you can find it, The Chinese Gold Murders. ( )

review at angharad_reads:
http://www.librarything.com/card_social.php?book=574313 ( )