Murder in Ancient China, Chicago Shorts

Two short mysteries—“The Murder on the Lotus Pond” and “Murder on New Year’s Eve”—featuring seventh-century Chinese detective Judge Dee.

Judge Dee—Confucian Imperial magistrate, inquisitor, and public avenger, based on a famous statesman—was Dutch diplomat and Chinese cultural historian Robert van Gulik’s (1910–67) lasting invention. A welcome addition to the elite canon of fictional detectives, the Judge steps in to investigate homicide, theft, and treason and restores order to the golden age of the Tang Dynasty. In Murder in Ancient China’s first story, we watch as Judge Dee attempts to solve the mystery of an elderly poet murdered by moonlight in his garden pavilion; in the second, set on the eve of the Chinese New Year, the Judge makes two rare mistakes—will peril result?

Praise for the Judge Dee Mystery series

“Delightful novels, so scrupulously in the classic Chinese manner yet so nicely equipped with everything to satisfy the modern reader.” —The New York Times

“Entertaining, instructive and oddly impressive, Judge Dee, the officers of his tribunal and the people with whom he and they are concerned are interesting folk, and the world of crime, mystery, violence, lust, corruption and ceremony in which they move is formidably picturesque.” —Times Literary Supplement