Removed from his position as chief Inspector, Chen Cao has been installed as director of the Shanghai Judicial System Reform Office but immediately placed on involuntary 'convalescence leave.' Despite being on leave, the murder of an acquaintance leads Chen to get involved in an investigation that shares a striking similarity to a Judge Dee novel.
A dying billionaire hires private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro to retrieve his beautiful, grieving daughter from an exploitative cult, luring them into a world of ubiquitous deception and danger. Reprint.
Nella fabbrica delle bestie ogni angolo è una trappola e puoi solo giocare il tuo gioco. Un noir teso come un thriller, il romanzo definitivo sul carcere. Dove imparare a vivere vuol dire essere pronti a morire, e a uccidere. Sotto l'occhio gelido di Bunker, la critica alla disumanità totale della prigione diventa assoluta potenza narrativa. «Qui dentro per avere rispetto ti devi comportare come un animale». «Va a finire che c'è qualche stronzo che ti arriva alle spalle e lo fa. Tutti possono morire. Tutti sanguinano. E chiunque può ammazzare al momento giusto». Ron Decker, di buona famiglia, finisce a San Quentin perché vendeva droga «come avesse la licenza». Per sua fortuna, nella prigione dove le lotte razziali e di clan sono la norma, incontra subito il più tosto, il peggiore, Earl Copen. Che gli spiega come stanno le cose. Amicizia maschile e criminale, ma amicizia. Ne può uscire qualcosa. E la pelle si vende più cara.
A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK After a car accident Jarred discovers he'll never walk again. Confined to a 'giant roller-skate', he finds himself with neither money nor job, a shoplifting habit, an addiction to painkillers and strangers treating him like he's an idiot. Worse still, he's forced to live back home with his estranged father. Trying to piece himself together, Jarred comes to realise that things don't have to stay broken after all. The Coward is about hurt and forgiveness, how the world treats disabled people, and how we write and rewrite the stories we tell ourselves about our lives - and try to find a happy ending.
"Dark, gorgeous...feels authentically Chinese and it works like a charm." --Washington Post Book World on A Case of Two Cities Chief Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Department is offered a bit of luxury by friends and supporters within the Party - a week's vacation at a luxurious resort near Lake Tai, a week where he can relax, and recover, undisturbed by outside demands or disruptions. Unfortunately, the once beautiful Lake Tai, renowned for its clear waters, is now covered by fetid algae, its waters polluted by toxic runoff from local manufacturing plants. Then the director of one of the manufacturing plants responsible for the pollution is murdered and the leader of the local ecological group is the primary suspect of the local police. Now Inspector Chen must tread carefully if he is to uncover the truth behind the brutal murder and find a measure of justice for both the victim and the accused.
Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Police Bureau is taking a vacation, in part because he is annoyed at his boss, Party Secretary Li, but also because he has been made an offer he can’t refuse by Gu, a triad-connected businessman. For what seems to be a fortune—with no apparent strings attached— he is to translate a business proposal for the New World, a complex of shops and restaurants to be built in Central Shanghai, evoking nostalgia for the “glitter and glamour” of the 1930s. It is up to Detective Yu, Chen’s partner, to take charge of a new case. Yin, a novelist, has been murdered in her room. At first it seems that only a neighbor could have committed the crime, but when one confesses, Yu cannot believe that he is really the killer. As Yu looks further into Yin’s life, ample motives begin to surface, even on the part of Internal Security. But it is only when Inspector Chen steps back into the investigation that the culprit is apprehended. And then Chen discovers how Gu has played him and how he, in turn, can play the new capitalist system.