Where Judge Dee Makes Quick Work of Many Mysteries

Judge Dee at Work: Eight Chinese Detective Stories by Robert van Gulik
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a collection of short stories, each one a quick mystery solved by Judge Dee. Most of the Judge Dee books are regular novels, and very engaging, but I enjoyed this collection at least as much as those.

Sometimes you just want a 20-page short story to read, you know?

I like that the MC is very insightful and a little bit of a jerk. He's good at what he does, but he's kinda short with others, and he doesn't mind giving a whole bunch of people their worst day ever while finding the truth. He's no saint. Nor is he infallible. As a result, he feels pretty round, like a regular person who happens to also have a particular set of skills, so when he cuts through the nonsense and solves a tough crime, it doesn't give you any Mary Sue vibes.

Crusty old Judge Dee catches the bad guys and helps the downtrodden, the wrongly accused, and the kinda lost get a second chance, sometimes, (though it might come with a bit of a sermon--LOL) which is all you want from a collection like this. And just a touch of the risqué, actually, though it's not terribly shocking stuff. It is 60+ years old, after all.

Good fun. Recommended for mystery readers.

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