I've put together Chinese New Year's Mystery Lists for the past few years, as well as some titles (scroll down) that take place in China, not necessarily during the New Year. As always, I welcome any additions.
CHINESE NEW YEAR MYSTERIES
Year of the Dog, Red Jade by Henry Chang
Year of the Dragon by Robert Daley
Neon Dragon by John Dobbyn
Dim Sum Dead by Jerrilyn Farmer
The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
Chop Suey by Ty Hutchison
The Skull Cage Key by Michael Marriott
The Shanghai Moon by S.J. Rozan
City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley
The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Robert Van Gulik (7th Century China) "New Year's Eve in Lan-Fang"
Short story by Mary Reed and Eric Mayer: "The Lady Fish Mystery", EQMM, September/October 1996.
The Nancy Drew Notebooks: The Chinese New Year Mystery by Carolyn Keene
The New Year Dragon Dilemma by Ron Roy
A good reference book for contemporary crime fiction in China: Chinese Justice, the Fiction: Law and Literature in Modern China by Jeffrey C. Kinkley (Stanford University Press)
Not specifically about Chinese New Year, here's a short list of mysteries set in China:
Ralph Arnote, Hong Kong, China
Biggers, Earl Derr, Charlie Chan: The House Without a Key, The Chinese Parrot, Behind the Curtain, The Black Camel, Keeper of the Keys
Lisa Brackmann, Rock Paper Tiger, Hour of the Ram
Adam Brookes, Night Heron
Koonchung Chan, The Fat Years
Yin-Lien C. Chin, The "Stone Lion" and Other Chinese Detective Stories
Stephen Coonts, Hong Kong
Charles Cumming, Typhoon
Franklin M. Davis, Jr., Secret: Hong Kong
Chris Emmett, Hong Kong Policeman
Paul French, Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China
Jim Michael Hansen, Bad Laws
Mara Hvistendahl, And The City Swallowed Them
Carolyn Keene, The Mystery of the Fire Dragon (Nancy Drew #38). Yes, Nancy goes to Hong Kong!
He Jiahong, The Madwoman
S.G. Kiner, The Hong Kong Connection
D.L. Kung, The End of May Road
Diane Wei Liang, The Eye of Jade
John L. Mariotti, The Chinese Conspiracy
Paul Mason, Rare Earth
Peter May, The Firemaker, The Killing Room, Chinese Whispers
Nicole Mones, A Cup of Light
Xiaolong Qiu, Death of a Red Heroine, A Loyal Character Dancer, When Red is Black, A Case of Two Cities, Red Mandarin Dress, The Mao Case, Don't Cry, Tai Lake; Enigma of China, Shanghai Redemption
Catherine Sampson, The Pool of Unease
Lisa See, Flower Net, Dragon Bones, The Interior
Deborah Shlian, Rabbit in the Moon
Wang Shuo, Playing for Thrills
Robert Stewart, The Last Bowl of Tea
Eric Stone, Shanghaied
Nury Vittachi, The Feng Shui Detective
A.Yi, A Perfect Crime
Christopher West, Death of a Blue Lantern
Kate Whitehead, Hong Kong Murders
Don Winslow, Shibumi (o.k., only part of the action is in China, but I love this novel!)
David Wise, Tiger Trap
Chen Xiaoquing, Sherlock in Shanghai
Here's a wonderful blog on Writing in China by Bertrand Mialaret (in French) http://www.mychinesebooks.com/
Also I'll have recipes on my other blog, Dying for Chocolate, for a Chocolate Chinese New Year...Chocolate Cake, 5-Spice Chinese Truffles.
Noooo!! More to add to my ever-growing TBR pile! But I have to point out: I've read all of Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chan mysteries and I don't recall any of them set in China. Yes, Charlie's Chinese, but he lives in Hawaii and goes to San Francisco and other places on the mainland. Good books, though!
ReplyDeleteYou have listed some of my favorites, but there are so many more I hadn't heard of. I got hooked on Chinese mysteries with Judge Dee so am always on the lookout for more, historical and modern. Thank you so much, Janet, for these lists!
ReplyDeleteI love this. The best way to celebrate Chinese New Year: read!
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of alienating everyone with self-promotion, I've got Chinese-Canadian protagonists in my Hope Sze medical mysteries, set in Montreal, and Killer School mysteries, set in Italy and India so far.
Gung Hay Fat Choy!