Review: Pleasant reading of the past
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 4, 2014
This was my first encounter with the Judge Dee mysteries. Set in medieval China and loosely based on a real person, they are like a 7th-century Asian version of Sherlock Holmes. However, it's pretty easy to guess whodunit and even why, so the reader mostly derives pleasure from the unusual setting and cultural details. This is a fast read, comprising two fairly short stories. In one, a retired poet is murdered with no witnesses; in the other, it appears murder most foul has been committed - or has it? I enjoyed these stories but didn't find them strongly compelling and am not likely to reread them. The writing is very clear and I'm impressed that it was written in English, as the author was a Dutch man who lived in Japan and China for years.