Shanghai - by Joseph Kanon (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Shanghai begins when Daniel Lohr, sensing the Nazis closing in on the Jews of Berlin, leaves his dying father and agrees to flee to Shanghai on an Italian passenger ship. His passage is dependent upon him agreeing to deliver a package to his shady uncle upon arrival. Aboard the ship he will meet a woman, Leah, also a Jew fleeing the Nazis. They conduct a passionate but brief shipboard affair and then the passenger ship arrives. Will Dan ever see her again? He is met by his uncle--who has changed his name--and soon Dan is plunged into his uncle's world, specifically a big new nightclub, the best and most glitzy in town. Within minutes, violence breaks out as someone tries to assassinate his uncle, and with that, Dan is drawn deep into the underworld that is wartime Shanghai"--

Book Synopsis

Named a Best Mystery & Suspense Book of the Year by BookPage and CrimeReads

"A steamy, thrilling crime story" (The Washington Post) from New York Times bestselling author Joseph Kanon set in pre-World War II Shanghai, where glamour and squalor exist side by side and murder is just the cost of doing business.

After the violence of Kristallnacht (1938), European Jews, now desperate to emigrate, found the consular doors of the world closed to them. Only one port required no entry visa: Shanghai, a self-governing Western trading enclave in what was technically Chinese territory, a political anomaly that became an escape hatch--if you were lucky enough to afford a ticket on one of the great Lloyd liners sailing to the East and safety.

Daniel Lohr was one of the lucky ones--lucky enough to have escaped the Gestapo when his colleagues in the resistance were caught, lucky to have an uncle waiting in Shanghai, lucky to find a casual shipboard flirtation that turns unexpectedly passionate. But even lucky refugees have to confront the reality of Shanghai. With all their assets and passports confiscated by the Nazis, they arrive penniless and stateless in a tumultuous, nearly lawless city notorious for vice. When you can sink fast, how far are you willing to go to survive? What lines do you cross? As Daniel tries to navigate his way through his uncle's world in Shanghai's fabled nightlife, he finds himself increasingly ensnared in a maze where politics and crime are two sides of the same shiny coin. The trick, his uncle tells him, is to stay one step ahead. But how do you stay ahead of murder? How do you outrun your own past?

"A Casablanca-worthy setting for World War II-era intrigue" (Parade), Shanghai is the story of a political haven that becomes a minefield of conflicting loyalties--"one of [Kanon's] most satisfying historical thrillers to date" (The Wall Street Journal).

Review Quotes

"A steamy, thrilling crime story that blends a film noir sensibility with eye-opening historical fiction." --Washington Post

"With Shanghai, Mr. Kanon has given readers one of his most satisfying historical thrillers to date." --Wall Street Journal

"Trust is a rare commodity in Joseph Kanon's Shanghai which unfurls in such a classic noir style you expect Humphrey Bogart to turn up in one of its gangster-infested casinos." --New York Times Book Review

"Kanon has a great ear for noir-ish, hardboiled quips and a gift for believably plunging his characters into the relentless flow of historic skullduggery." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Kanon has selected a perfect location for intrigue, danger, and treacherous political dynamics. The strength of Shanghai is in its skillful plotting, with numerous twists and turns as befitting this tumultuous period in the city's history. Kanon ably depicts the combustible elements fighting each other as well as the contrasts between the rich and the impoverished population. The novel teems with scheming characters, feints and deceptions, and an interwoven romance which will gratify readers." --New York Journal of Books

"Nobody writes sophisticated, atmospheric spy fiction like Joseph Kanon. Vividly depicted, Shanghai is one of the best entries in a storied career. Kanon is quite simply a master storyteller." --CrimeReads, Best Crime Novels of 2024

"The threats, narrow misses, and one-liners pack a punch in this tale of loyalty and survival." --Christian Science Monitor

"Fascinating and tautly suspenseful . . . Joseph Kanon is known for his elegantly written, impressively immersive World War II thrillers, and Shanghai is no exception. . . . [he] transports readers to 1939 Shanghai, conjur[ing] the city's veneer of glamour, and the danger and desperation festering beneath, with his trademark skill and verve. Shanghai artfully balances violence, romance, and edgy suspense in a layered and compelling tale of an extraordinary place and time in human history." --BookPage (starred review)

A fast-paced thriller featuring vice, corruption and espionage in Shanghai before the start of World War II when Jewish people fled persecution in Germany." --AARP

"Joseph Kanon makes Shanghai a Casablanca-worthy setting for World War II-era intrigue. . . . Start casting the movie version now." --Parade

"Joseph Kanon's novels of wartime crime and espionage inhabit a perfectly evoked intersection between noir and Greeneland. . . . [his] cabaret is always a pleasure." --The Times (UK)

"Edgar-winning Kanon plays global and personal intrigues to perfection here. Fans of historical thrillers will appreciate Kanon's ability to cloak betrayals with the period's looming uncertainty and evoke Shanghai's particular vitality." --Booklist (starred review)


"As in his spy novels, Kanon demonstrates a mastery of closed-in drama. Such is the jabbing understatement of the dialogue--what's withheld matters more than what's said--that it holds you in suspense as much as any action scene. The contrast between his impeccable control and the nightmarish chaos of this time and place gives things a powerful edge. Kanon goes to China with stirring results." --Kirkus (starred review)

"[A] superbly written WWII espionage thriller. . . . From the opening paragraph, it's clear readers are in expert hands: Kanon writes with a master's touch, flexing his gift for atmosphere and crafting characters who seem capable of walking off the page and taking a seat next to the reader. With pulse pounding suspense, top-shelf dialogue, and a palpable evocation of its period setting, this is as good as crime fiction gets." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)