Review: Thoughtful mystery
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 14, 2011
I am never sure about short stories but this one gets it right with the balance between descriptive text and the actual mystery. It is a thoughtfully written mystery that does not rely on chases and high body count, a refreshing change, but in the style of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot or even Columbo. It is a closed room type of mystery where a body is found in a locked room with no murderer or murder weapon. Inspector Zhan wants to solve the murder by logic despite his sergeant trying to persuade him to bring in forensics. If you have not read a closed room type mystery this is a good start as the author goes through the various combinations that could have happened and eliminates them one by one.  The clues are there to be found so you can decide who did it, I won't give away any of the plot however Inspector Zhan did not ask to see the one piece of evidence that would have solved the mystery immediately, still if he had done that there would not have been a story.An Excellent short story, I will read more by this author.