Where the Bad Guys Don't Have a Chance

The Chinese Bell Murders by Robert van Gulik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author wrote this based on a character in Chinese literature (who was based on a real person) incorporating elements of plots from other Ming-era novels. That's already a bit unusual, but it's also a 20th century version of popular 17th century Ming Dynasty fiction set in 7th century Tang Dynasty--with all the anachronisms that the Ming novels were filled with. It all sounds unwieldy, but it works, and is very entertaining.

Judge Dee is a new magistrate in a busy town in Tang China. He arrives with his own team, which includes an elderly sergeant and several younger men with different skills. Sometimes he relies on them to collect evidence and talk to witnesses; sometimes he dons a disguise and goes out in search of clues himself. The story is made up of three different mysteries that he needs to work on at the same time, which apparently was the tradition in the old novels. There is the case of a woman raped and murdered, the cold case of a family wiped out in a feud, and the case of a Buddhist monastery where women hoping to become pregnant are being assaulted during their visit (but remain silent because of the stigma).

Some of the elements in these mysteries feel modern; others are peculiar to this blended Ming/Tang version of China. It's a fun mix, actually, though the punishments given out at the end are pretty severe and a bit off-putting...

Overall, I found this clever, fast-paced, and entertaining, enough fun to continue with other novels in the series.

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