I’m not usually given to reading fiction – I need to give myself the excuse that I’m learning something, and it’s easier to justify with non-fiction. But with this book, the justification is easy. You learn a lot about the way of life in China now – or at least, in the early 1990’s, when everything was opening up dramatically. And you learn a lot about how strong a streak of nepotism and corruption there is in Chinese institutions despite the ideals of communism, and how far into the lives of its citizens the Communist Party intrudes.

Death of a Red Heroine isn’t a whodunnit – it becomes pretty clear who the guilty party is midway through the book. And the protagonist Chief Inspector Chen, though likeable, isn’t always the brightest bulb in the box. The mystery in this story is: how are they ever going to prove their case against the guilty party, given the complicated politics surrounding the people involved, including Chief Inspector Chen himself?

And Chief Inspector Chen’s key talents are unusual for a detective. First, he spouts poetry. The newspaper article that triggered me to read this book said that he uses Tang poetry to gain insights into the human psyche. Well maybe that happens in later books, but in this book the coolest use of a poem is as a pseudo-code (only those who know the background to the poem – who it was written for – would understand it). His second talent is an affinity for talking to people, which stands him in good stead. He doesn’t have to do a lot of reasoning. He goes around and talks to some (pretty nosy) neighbours, or gets information through his copious contacts. And voila, the case is solved!

This isn’t to disparage the quality of the book. Like I said in the beginning, I learned a lot, and the characters are likeable. In fact I’m going to look for the next few books in the series.