Love and Murder in the Time of Covid - (Inspector Chen Mystery) by Qiu Xiaolong

About the Book

2020. Shanghai, China. Former chief inspector Chen faces a tricky serial murderer case at the height of the Covid pandemic - and risks everything he has to expose the deadly effects of the Chinese Communist Party's so-called zero Covid policy to the world.

Book Synopsis

Former chief inspector Chen faces a tricky serial murderer case at the height of the Covid pandemic - and risks everything he has to expose the deadly effects of the Chinese Communist Party's so-called zero Covid policy to the world.

Over two million copies of the Inspector Chen series sold worldwide.

The Covid crisis is at its height in China. Ex-chief inspector Chen Cao is horrified by the way the Chinese Communist Party are using the pandemic as an excuse to put the Chinese people under blanket surveillance and by the soaring number of deaths caused not by Covid, but by the CCP's inhuman 'zero Covid' policy.

Chen is debating whether to translate the 'Wuhan File' - a diary of life during the Wuhan disaster smuggled to him by a close friend - and expose the CCP's secrets to the world when to his surprise he is summoned by a high-level party cadre to help investigate a series of murders near a local Shanghai hospital.

Under pressure from the Party to reach a quick conclusion and help maintain political stability, Chen investigates, aware that he too has been placed under omnipresent, omnipotent surveillance. And as he works, determined to uncover the truth, no matter what, he risks everything by deciding to translate the Wuhan Files. For one thing is true in China: you must be absolutely loyal to the Party. Otherwise, you are considered absolutely disloyal, and the consequences are dark indeed . . .

Review Quotes

A provocative and timely take on Covid in China, with a whodunit kicker-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Fans of mysteries about honest cops working for compromised regimes won't want to miss this one-- "Library Journal Starred Review of Hold your Breath, China"

Fascinating ... Xiaolong writes with both urgency and grace about modern China in another well-crafted mystery-- "Booklist Starred Review of Hold Your Breath, China"

Gripping ... A scathing indictment of contemporary China-- "Booklist on Becoming Inspector Chen"

Inspector Chen's 10th mystery effectively uses the genre to explore China's current pollution crisis-- "Kirkus Reviews on Hold Your Breath, China"

Qiu's stylish hybrid is half fictional literary memoir and half crisp whodunit-- "Kirkus Reviews on Becoming Inspector Chen"

Stellar mystery . . . Newcomers and fans alike will look forward to how Qiu raises the stakes for Chen in the next book-- "Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Inspector Chen and the Private Kitchen Murder"

The plot is full of unpredictable detours and sidebars that intensify the pleasure of following Chen's vibrant curiosity. An exhilarating blend of recent history, mystery, and the writer's craft-- "Kirkus Reviews on Inspector Chen and the Private Kitchen Murder"

While series fans will be delighted at the background Qiu provides, this is an accessible starting point for newcomers ... in his superior 11th novel featuring Shanghai policeman and poet Chen Cao-- "Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Becoming Inspector Chen"

About the Author

Anthony Award winning author Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai and moved to Missouri, to complete a PhD degree in comparative literature at Washington University St Louis. After the Tiananmen tragedy in 1989 he stayed on in St Louis where he still lives with his wife.

Qiu has sold over two million copies of his Inspector Chen mysteries worldwide and been published in twenty languages. The novels have all been adapted as BBC Radio 4 dramas. Qiu is also the author of a brand-new mystery series set in Tang dynasty China, featuring the legendary Judge Dee Renjie. On top of his fiction, he is a prize-winning writer of poetry and poetry critic, having just written a foreword for a new Eliot poetry collection.