The Mao Case (Inspector Chen Cao Series #6) by Qiu Xiaolong

From the Publisher

Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department is the head of the Special Case group and is often put in charge of those cases that are considered politically "sensitive" since, as a rising party cadre, he's regarded by many as reliable. But Inspector Chen, though a poet by inclination and avocation, takes his job as a policeman very seriously, despite the pressures put upon him from within and without, and is unwilling to compromise his principles as a policeman in favor of political expedience. However, after the new Minister of Public Security insists that Chen personally take on a 'special assignment', an investigation already begun by Internal Security, he may no longer be able to resist those pressures. The party, increasingly leery of international embarrassment, is unhappy about two recent books that place Mao in a bad light. Now, Jiao, the granddaughter of an actress who was likely one of Mao's mistresses - a woman suspected of being Mao's own granddaughter - has recently quit her job, moved into a luxury apartment, and, without any visible means of support, become a part of a new social set centered around the remnants of pre-Communist Shanghai society. What they fear is that, somehow, she has inherited some artifact or material related to Mao that will, when made public, prove embarrassing. Even though there is no evidence that such even exists, Chen has been charged to infiltrate her social circle, determine if the feared material exists and, if it does, retrieve it quietly. And in only a few days - because if he can't resolve this 'Mao case' within the deadline, the party will resort to harsher, more deadly means.

Publishers Weekly

Reviled or revered, the specter of Mao still looms large over contemporary China, as shown in Qiu's cerebral sixth mystery to feature Chief Insp. Chen Cao (after 2007's Red Mandarin Dress). Just how charged that legacy remains becomes clear to the unorthodox but uncompromising Shanghai policeman as soon as he receives a top secret new assignment. Beijing wants Chen to find out-fast-the source of beautiful young painter Jiao's sudden wealth and whether it might be linked to any potentially embarrassing "Mao material" inherited from her ill-fated grandmother, a movie queen and onetime favorite of the late chairman. When Chen goes undercover to infiltrate Jiao's fashionable social circle, he discovers a group nostalgic for an idealized pre-Communist past-as well as deadly danger. Qiu's deftly paced suspense keeps the reader flipping pages until the over-the-top climax, but what lingers is his compelling portrait of China past and present, the eternal phoenix rising from the ashes. (Mar.)

Jo Ann Vicarel - Library Journal

In his sixth series outing (after Red Mandarin Dress), Chief Inspector Chen, working directly under the Central Party Committee, must find whatever object Chairman Mao gave to an old mistress that could potentially embarrass the Chinese government. Working under cover, he ferrets out small details of Mao's relationship with the actress/mistress Sheng and her family. Chen chips away at the puzzle, which ultimately turns into a murder investigation. No one writes about modern China, still dealing with the residual effects of the Cultural Revolution and the larger-than-life image of Mao, with the sensitivity and caring of this author. For all mystery collections. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ11/1/08.]

Kirkus Reviews

A Shanghai inspector reluctantly probes a case linked to the late Chairman Mao. With his reputation for discretion and his background as a poet and critic, Chief Inspector Chen Cao (Red Mandarin Dress, 2007, etc.) is the likeliest choice from the Shanghai Police Department's Special Case group to take on a sensitive assignment. A young woman named Jiao, whose movie actress grandmother was a favorite of Chairman Mao 50 years ago, may have inherited important information that the government feels compelled to know. (Chen's disdain for the bureaucracy is well-known to series readers; his ongoing inner monologue wraps both reflection and incisive humor in elegant prose). Adding to the mystery is the fact that Jiao lives in a luxury apartment whose cost is apparently beyond her means. Jiao's mother Qian, who died in a mysterious "accident" during the Cultural Revolution, was the subject of a bestseller called Cloud and Rain in Shanghai, with which Chen begins his research. Pretending to write a historical novel, Chen meets the young woman, an aspiring painter, at the dilapidated mansion of Xie, who teaches art classes and has frequent parties there. Initially, it's the disparity between the present and the past as Chen is able to piece it together, rather than the pursuit of Jiao's secret, that gives the story depth and suspense. But a murder in Xie's garden shifts Chen's focus, leaving Xie and Jiao two strong suspects who each provide the other a convenient alibi. Chen's sixth case is every bit as engrossing as its predecessors.

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