num_pages: 509
description: Shanghai, 1926: a sultry city lousy with opium, warlords, and corruption at the highest levels. Into this steamy morass walks Richard Field, an idealistic Brit haunted by his past and recently appointed to the international police. He’s not there long before called to the flat of a Russian prostitute, former daughter of privilege found sadistically murdered, handcuffed to her bed. When he discovers among her possessions a cryptic shipping log, he senses that this murder is more than a random crime of perverse passion. What unfolds is a searing story that propels Field into a confrontation with the city’s most ruthless and powerful gangster, and a dangerous attraction to another salacious Russian whose sordid connections seem destined to make her the next victim. Scintillating and subtle, The Master of Rain is a marvelous debut.
language: English
title: The Master of Rain
titlecomplete: The Master of Rain
genres: China, Historical Mystery, British Literature, Historical, Mystery, Detective, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Crime
ratings_count: 853
places: Shanghai
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Barry Award
category: Best British Crime Novel
publisher: Anchor