The Last of Dee: MURDER IN CANTON

The final volume in the Judge Dee series is a good read, but interestingly touches on various topics that van Gulik avoided in other volumes.

Murder in Canton has Dee, President the Metropolitan Court, visiting the titular city in 680 AD. Accompanied by assistants Chiao Tai and Tao Gan, he is there to investigate the disappearance of an Imperial Censor, one Lew Tao-ming. Of course, there's always the three intermingled cases; "The Case of the Imperial Censor" is all about finding out what happened to Lew. "The Case of the Smaragdine Dancer" revolves around an Arab/Chinese dancing girl, Zumurrud, and the mysterious people around her. And "The Case of the Secret Lovers" involves a long-ago death and the repercussions of it in the current time.

This time around, van Gulik talks about the Arab community in Canton, and the Chinese attitude toward them and any non-Chinese. Stories of people with red or yellow hair are dismissed as fantasies by the Chinese characters. It also looks at the Tanka, a real-life ethnic group in China who are outsiders, living on junks in various ports and sometimes referred to as "sea gypsies." (The name "Tanka" is actually a derogatory term applied by the Chinese and is no longer used officially; they're usually called "Boat Dwellers" in China and Hong Kong now.) They're treated horribly by the Chinese, and Dee's conscience is troubled by it, but there's little he can do. Zumurrud, the Smaragdine Dancer, is half-Tanka and even more of an outsider. This is all more of a twist than usual; van Gulik often paints a very sympathetic of Chinese culture and civilization, and this time around he shows some of the uglier side, with some of the Chinese cultural arrogance and prejudices shown full-on.

The plots are all pretty much interwoven, and one isn't much of a mystery until nearly the end. Of course, there's a dastardly mastermind plotting the overthrow of the Empire, and villainous Arabs on the loose. Some good characters include the amusing Captain Nee, a Chinese seaman who's adopted a lot of Arab customs and mannerisms, and has two young slave girls, Dunyazad and Dananir, both of Chinese and Arab mixture. Also Lan-lee, a blind woman who sells crickets, and who develops a connection to Tao Gan.

There's a lot of finality here as well; van Gulik knew this would end the series. Chiao Tai meets a fate that he foretold in the first book, and Tao Gan ends the story with marriage impending. Dee regretfully retires from active investigation, declaring that since his investigative techniques and methods are now so well known, it's become a liability and he's going to focus on administrative and political problems from here on out.

There have been attempts to continue the Dee legacy. A continuation series by Frederic Lenormand numbers 19 volumes, published in France and as yet unavailable in English. Another French author, Sven Roussel, wrote a one-off Dee novel. Eleanor Cooney & Daniel Alteri's massive historic novel Deception incorporated Dee. I have a copy of Zhu Xiao Di's short story collection Tales of Judge Dee, which seemed official when I ordered it on Amazon but the stories are atrociously written, full of anachronisms, and poorly characterized. Plus, it turns out to be the product of a vanity publisher. I got about a third of the way in and gave up. I need to track down Tsui Hark's 2010 movie Judge Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, just to give it a go.

I love the Dee mysteries; every couple of years I reread them all. They're a big comfort; I love Dee's sense of duty and determination to be fair. The descriptions of life in ancient China are fascinating. And it's almost impossible for me to read one of them without being hungry for Chinese food after. Sometimes when faced with a problem I wonder, "What would Dee do?" Dee can be a stickler for the law, but he tempers that with his sense of humanity and justice. He's a great character.

The entire series is Required Reading. Check 'em out.

Judge Dee: THE WILLOW PATTERN

In The Willow Pattern, Judge Dee is President of the Metropolitan Court, but also has been appointed emergency governor of the capitol city during a drought and plague. He's trying to maintain order and discipline in the city while it's half-deserted (the Emperor and many of the wealthy have left town), and naturally some interesting crimes rise up calling for his attention.

In "The Case of the Steep Staircase," a wealthy philanthropist is found dead after apparently falling down the stairs. But is it all that it seems? In "The Case of the Willow Pattern," a nobleman is found brutally murdered, the only clues being his sadistic, predatory habits, and a smashed vase in the now-familiar willow pattern. "The Case of the Murdered Bondmaid" is a retroactive case; a servant woman was beaten to death a generation ago; how is her death still influencing people today?

Dee is assisted by his lieutenants Ma Joong, Chiao Tai, and Tao Gan, since Hoong Liang was killed in the last book, The Chinese Nail Murders. Dee is much more The Man now; he is Imperial Authority in the city and is not to be questioned or messed with at all. And much of the action takes place in the milieu of the city's "old world," that of decadent noble families with pedigrees that predate the current dynasty...and all the sins that go with it. It's also notable for being the only Dee novel set in the oft-referenced capitol city. (Which is never named, by the way.)

It all ends well, except for one murder that Dee decides to not pursue, stating that he doesn't mind having a few unsolved cases on his record! Ma Joong falls in love and disappears from the series; we find out in the next (and last) book that he's married now. Still, it's a solid, good later work from van Gulik, and worth reading.

Coming soon: the final Dee novel, Murder in Canton.

Judge Dee: The Night of the Tiger

The second half of The Monkey and the Tiger takes place immediately after the events of The Chinese Nail Murders, while Dee is riding from Pei-Chow to the capitol, and going through a region struck by severe flooding. He's separated from his escort by a collapsing bridge, and then finds himself on an island created by the floods. On it are a gang of bandits called the Flying Tigers, but there's also a fortified country house. Of course, Dee takes shelter there, and ends up investigating a nasty murder.

"The Night of the Tiger" is a sort of T'ang dynasty version of one of those old-dark-house movies from the 30s, but it works well. Dee sleeps in the room of the owner's daughter, Kee-Yu, who was found dead earlier that day. Van Gulik's portrait of the girl is affecting; she's a person of breeding and taste, but also tormented by ill health and possibly morbid brooding. However, Dee discovers that not everything is as it seems, and in the end there's a nasty twist, but the forces of law and justice triumph at last.

I've always been haunted by Kee-Yu; she's relatable but also sad and pathetic. I find her taste and refinement appealing, even admirable, but she also serves as a warning of too much brooding. She has a love affair that ends badly, and it's sad because she was the object of unrequited yet noble passion by one of her father's trusted aides. In the drawing class I took last summer, we were experimenting with Chinese brushes one night, and instead of doing the usual still lifes, I did this little picture of Kee-Yu, looking at the moon and mountains from her balcony.

(Yeah, I know, hardly spectacular, but I liked it. My teacher was impressed and suggested I get some brushes and experiment on my own. Haven't done that yet, but I should.)

"The Night of the Tiger" is a nice little novella with some bits that I found personally haunting. Like the rest of the Judge Dee series, this is Required Reading.

Next in the Dee series: Dee tackles affairs in the capitol in The Willow Pattern.

THE CHINESE NAIL MURDERS by Robert van Gulik

The last of the "Chinese (four-letter-word) Murders" novels of the Judge Dee series, this is also a turning point in the series. Like others in this sequence, there is a supernatural framing story; in this case, an official receives an unexpected visit from his brother, an official assigned to Pei-Chow, who tells him the story contained in the novel. He then leaves...and then next morning a messenger arrives with news of the brother's death in the faraway city.



Dee has been assigned to the desolate, barren district of Pei-Chow, in China's cold north, for only a couple of months. He and his lieutenants are discussing a recent disappearance of a young girl, when a report is made of the discovery of a woman's headless body. As the novel proceeds there is also the death of a noted martial artist from poison, who leaves a clue in the form of a tangram arrangement. Then a chance encounter has Dee looking into a seemingly natural death from five years before, sure that somehow it must have been murder. Thus we have the three mysteries of the book:  "The Headless Corpse," "The Paper Cat," and "The Murdered Merchant."

The book's weak point is that it lifts almost completely whole a plot from Dee Goong An, so if you've read that you'll know, pretty much, how the murder was done and how it will end.

It does have its strengths, though. There's some great, memorable bits, especially an eerie scene with a snowman. There's a wonderfully-etched couple in the book, kindly hunchback Coroner Kuo and his beautiful and selfless wife, with whom Dee starts to fall in love. And we have the ruthless Mrs. Loo, of whom we have little doubt is guilty, but the real question is how long can she manipulate matters to her own end? And, most shockingly, is the death of Hoong Liang.

There is also real tension here. Dee's questioning of Mrs. Loo puts his career and life in danger, because if she is truly innocent, Dee's accusations of her will cause him to be executed. (Of course, considering there are more books in the series after this, it's easy to guess that he triumphs. In fact, the book ends with Dee being appointed President of the Metropolitan Court and leaving for the Capitol.)

But as with all the rest of the books in the Judge Dee series, this is Required Reading. (And my Judge Dee series is winding down; there's only a novella and two novels left for me to review...)

Judge Dee: Phantoms, Coffins, and New Year's Eve

It's 670 AD, and Dee is 40 years old and the magistrate of the desolate province of Lan-Fang. His assignment there was engineered by his enemies at court (possibly an indirect attempt at murder) but once again he conquered adversity and brought order to the town. All this was described in The Chinese Maze Murders, and here's some further adventures in that city.

In The Phantom of the Temple, Dee purchases an antique box as a birthday gift for his First Lady. However, inside it is an odd note that sounds as if someone was being held prisoner in a nearby deserted temple. Soon, we have three mysteries to solve again. A local girl is missing; could she be the source of the note in the box? What's going on with a local painter who's behaving oddly? And where are the fifty gold bars, stolen from an Imperial Treasury courier?

This is late van Gulik, published in 1966, but still good. As always, he gives us a good look at Chinese history and culture; in this case, the deserted temple was a haven of Tantric Buddhism, which apparently was not popular among Chinese officials. Also, we get the best glimpse ever of Dee's wives, and the Third Wife gets her moment in the sun, actually doing a bit of detecting work for her husband.

But it's still Dee's show, and he's definitely in charge. He's calm, resourceful, and observant as always, although we're not always given a look into his thought processes until the end of the story.

Two short stories were also set in Lan-Fang. In "The Coffins of the Emperor," Dee is visiting a neighboring district during a military crisis, as a Tartar army is getting ready to invade China. A respected general has accused a respected official of treason, and of hiding armaments in the coffin of a Crown Prince buried in a nearby tomb; can Dee figure out if it's true without actually opening the coffin and committing a high offense himself? Also, there's a case of a captain accused of murder; he claims to be innocent of strangling another officer's wife, but is he really? And who is the culprit? It's decent Dee, and remarkable in my memory for Dee's plea for clemency at the end for a gay murderer, stating that nature directed him one way, but his family forced him into another, and he couldn't cope with the results, and allowing him to commit suicide. Dee's humanity shines in that moment.

The other is a very humane story, "Murder on New Year's Eve," when Dee encounters a young boy wandering the streets, and when trying to return the boy to his family, finds that the parents have quarreled and there's signs of a possible murder. All ends happily, for a change; it's really almost a comedy rather than a mystery.

Van Gulik's map of Lan Fang.

As with all van Gulik, these are Required Reading. Coming up next, there's another assignment for Dee...and a major life change.

Judge Dee: Lost in the Maze

Sorry, folks, I was away for the holidays and didn't have much time for blogging. Now I'm back and getting a few things up before 2012 starts breathing down our collective back...

The Chinese Maze Murders was the first Dee book written, but not first in sequence; it's actually mid-way through the series. It opens with the supernatural framing story found in the early novels; in this case, a man who researches old cases has a chance encounter with an old man (the ghost of Dee?) who tells him a lurid story over many pots of wine in a restaurant...but then the next day nobody remembers seeing him.

Dee and his lieutenants are introduced as being on their way to a new post in fictitious district of Lan-Fang, a remote section of the border harried by Uighur tribes. It's said that this is due to his angering two powerful factions, the Buddhist clique and the Cantonese merchants, while at his last posting. (This is recounted in The Chinese Bell Murders.) Things are definitely amiss when he arrives, and he discovers that a local tyrant has set himself up as the power in charge, and has bribed and browbeaten the old magistrate into submission. Dee quickly puts things to rights, although the situation comes into play later in the novel.

Dee is confronted by three mysteries. First off is the death of a retired general, found murdered in his locked study, a bizarre miniature dagger steeped in poison embedded in his throat. And a packet of candied plums is in his sleeve, laced with poison. Who wanted him dead? Was the same person responsible for both?

Secondly, the young widow of another retired official comes to Dee with a problem; her husband left her with nothing but a scroll painting that supposedly was a clue to her real inheritance. However, his adult son by his first marriage maintains that she was disinherited because of infidelity. Does the secret lie in the complicated garden maze of the official's crumbling estate?

Last, what became of beautiful innocent White Orchid? She vanished some time ago and may have been part of the tyrant's harem, but there's no sign of her in his house. Someone who might have been her was seen in an old temple garden...but then later a headless corpse shows up that's identified as her. What happened?

This book has a rawness that clearly indicates it as an early work, but it's still good. Van Gulik's gothic descriptions of the crumbling garden maze are vivid and memorable. He creates a number of good supporting characters, like the feisty Dark Orchid, and the Taoist hermit Master Crane Robe who gives valuable clues while barely seeming to know what's going on. And Mah Joong has a fling with Tulbee, a Uighur girl who shows up later in the series.

As usual, any of Van Gulik's Judge Dee novels are Required Reading.

Judge Dee: Necklaces and Poets

Dee is on vacation after some tough work, and is on a fishing trip in quiet "Rivertown" where he hopes to relax. However, he is contacted by the local authorities, including an Imperial princess who makes her residence at a riverside palace there. The Princess is horrified at the loss of a valuable pearl necklace, a gift from her father, and her camp in the palace is worried that this is part of some scheme to manipulate the Emperor. Also, there's the death of a hotel clerk, and the disappearance of the owner's wife, that complicates things.

This is the next-to-last Dee novel written, and by now van Gulik had abandoned the named three cases and the map of the scene in the beginning. However, it's got some good characters, including the plucky niece of the innkeeper, Fern, whose assistance to Dee is invaluable. There's also a roving Taoist monk, Master Gourd, who proves to be more than he seems. There's also a nice glimpse of palace life, indolent and luxurious on the surface but full of scheming and decadence underneath.

Dee is staying a few days in the neighboring district of Chin-Hwa, just in time for the Autumn Moon festival. He's being hosted by his old friend Magistrate Lo, who's hosting a gathering of poets for the occasion. But of course, Dee gets embroiled in murderous goings-on. Yoo-lan, a former courtesan turned poet is attending, although she's been accused of beating a servant to death. Soong I-wen, a student, is murdered in a silk merchant's house. And a dancer is killed shortly after performing at a banquet. Are the cases connected?

Well, of course they are. But it's fun on the way. We get a good look at Magistrate Lo, a character often depicted as foolish and frivolous, but this time we're allowed to see a shrewd, intelligent side to his character. There's also some side characters, like the poet Sexton Loo, whose beliefs are a precursor of Zen, and the tragic Saffron, a mentally ill girl who lives in a nearby Shrine of the Black Fox.

One interesting aspect is Yoo-lan, who is based on the real Chinese poetess Yu Xuanji, who really was a courtesan who became a respected poet, reportedly had an affair with great poet Wen Tingyun, but whose life ended on the scaffold after being accused of the murder of a servant, a charge that is debated to this day. (According to some sources, that story may be completely false.) One of Yu's poems is reproduced in the book, in a scene set in a pavilion during an autumn banquet, a scene I found very memorable.

There's a few weaknesses in this entry; the plot's a little thin and hurriedly resolved. But van Gulik was writing this while very ill, and it was published a year after his death, so perhaps his talents weren't at their full peak.

For a bit of irony, the next book in the sequence of the series is the first written....

Judge Dee: Beggars & Swords, Pavilions & Pearls

We're back in China again, in one of Dee's busiest periods of his career. From 668 to 670, he investigated not only the Bell murders but a number of other cases as well, some of which are covered here.

First off are two short stories. The first, "The Two Beggars," has Dee spotting the seeming ghost of a beggar in his house, which inspires him to look closer at the reported death of a beggar nearby. It's got a decent plot, with good info about the Lantern Festival, a well-etched characterization of the victim, and a nice explanation for the ghost. It's kind of a sad story as well, with the theme of hopeless, frustrated yearning that pops up here and there in van Gulik's work. The second, "The Wrong Sword," has Dee's assistants witnessing what at first seems to be the accidental killing of a young boy, who's part of an acting troupe doing acrobatic tricks. (In the Dee works, there's little difference between being an actor and being an acrobat/dancer/juggler.) They look closer, and there's ugliness underneath it all. The ending is nasty but there's a nice look at the lives of traveling actors of the period...although Dee's assurances to the innocent survivors at the end seem almost like rubbing salt in their wounds.

Next up is the novel The Red Pavilion, in which Dee and Ma Joong are passing through the pleasure resort of Paradise Island (no, Wonder Woman does not live there, and they're not in the Bahamas). They're to spend a couple of days relaxing while on their way back from a visit to the Capitol, but then Dee's friend Magistrate Lo is there, and must beat a hasty exit for some reason, and asks Dee to cover a few things for him, while Dee stays in a luxury suite that gives the novel its title.

The Red Pavilion has its three separate cases, but the separation is tenuous at best. "The Callous Courtesan" is about Autumn Moon, the "Queen Flower" or chief courtesan of the island, who is an unpleasant personality, and who is found dead in Dee's locked bedroom. Why? Was she poisoned, or killed somehow? "The Amorous Academician" concerns a mysterious death that happened a week earlier in that same room; in this case, an egotistical young scholar seemingly committed suicide, something quite out of character for him. Was he really murdered? By whom? And "The Unlucky Lovers" concerns itself with an unsolved murder that happened in that room decades before; who was the real culprit?

They're all very well intertwined, but I have to say that the solutions are uninspiring and bland. The real attractions are its looks at the worlds of courtesans and businessmen who run the pleasure resorts of the period. Magistrate Lo is always good company, and there's also two exceptionally good minor characters, enforcers for the local constabulary who are known as the Shrimp and the Crab. They're worth the reading alone.

The Emperor's Pearl takes place in a town near Poo-yang, during the Dragon Boat races. Dee and his wives are enjoying a game of dominoes on the official barge when crime interrupts...

Three cases again! "The Dead Drummer" gives us the mystery of a drummer for one of the boats who suddenly dies during the race, and they realize he was poisoned. Who did it, and why? "The Murdered Slavemaid" has a woman hiring Dee for a service (he's disguised as a wandering martial arts teacher) only to have him be too late to prevent her murder or to catch the criminal. Who was she, and why was she killed? And "The Emperor's Pearl" is the mystery of a treasure, a pearl of exceptional size and beauty, that's supposedly in the area, hidden away for years after it vanished from the Imperial Palace. Is it really there? Where is it? Would someone kill to have it?

The milieu is mostly that of antique dealers, with some weird sexual perversion going on. Sheng Pa, the roguish king of beggars from The Chinese Bell Murders, reappears, and has a romance going on with a frail court lady. (I'm only being partly sarcastic.) And there's other mysteries, of a supposedly haunted house, a woman who suddenly went insane, and others that are finally resolved in a dramatic confrontation.

This one is solid work, never spectacular or terrible, but a good piece of literary craft.

Coming up: two more from Poo-yang...

Judge Dee: THE CHINESE BELL MURDERS

Second in the series in publication order (published in 1958), you can tell because van Gulik really works hard at keeping the three cases separate. There's also a sort of rawness palpable in this book; it hasn't quite the polish that the later books had. Yet still there's an obvious verve and enthusiasm for the material that shines through.

It opens with the supernatural framing story found in some of the novels. In this one, a Ming Dynasty collector of criminal memorabilia happens upon one of Judge Dee's old caps, and tries it on, only to be flooded with memories that aren't his own. Of course, he's compelled to write them down...

Dee is the newly-appointed magistrate of the district Poo-yang (stop snickering), in the Kiangsu province. So far things are quiet, save for a vulgar murder in the poor district. But later there arises a few more cases...

In "The Rape Murder in Half Moon Street" there's a simple-sounding case that turns out to be nowhere near as simple as it seems to be, with a great bit of armchair detection as Dee, hearing the details of the case in the courtroom, issues a rough description of an unknown person who is the real killer, based solely on deduction. There's also a supernatural edge to that story, as it involves a pair of purportedly cursed hairpins that were stolen, that bring calamity on the owner...

"The Secret of the Buddhist Temple" has Dee being openly bribed by some Buddhist monks who live in a wealthy temple outside town. They find out it's reputed for a "miraculous" statue of Kwan Yin; if a childless woman sleeps in the temple, she'll be blessed with children. This is a problematic part of the book, as Dee suspects wrongdoing right away, simply because they're Buddhist. (The old Chinese novels van Gulik based these books on had anti-Buddhist material in them, and were also occasionally anti-Taoist as well.) But Dee seeks to get to the bottom of what's going on.

And then there's "The Mysterious Skeleton," in which an elderly widow presents evidence of a long-standing feud between her family (of which she is the last member) and of a wealthy Cantonese merchant residing in town. While her story has inconsistencies, the judge does suspect the merchant right away (because he's Cantonese, it seems) and out of nowhere assumes he's smuggling salt, an Imperial monopoly. The trail of clues lead to an abandoned Taoist monastery near the merchant's compound that had been used by a militant sect (see? distrust of Taoists!), and a huge old bell that covers a grisly secret.

OK, so it's got a few weaknesses, mainly in that Dee's Confucianist prejudice against other religions, and prejudice against Cantonese merchants, doesn't sit well with modern Western sensibilities, even if he's always justified in the end. It's also Dee at his most ruthless and manipulative, and we're not always made privy to what's going on in his head. At one point he purchases two low-class concubines for reasons not readily made apparent, and ends up pissing off his First Lady something fierce. And a the way the Buddhist monks are dispatched struck me as a wild coincidence when I first read it about 30 years ago, but a modern rereading shows that Dee waited until the right moment and manipulated circumstances so things would turn out the way he wanted them.

But there are some good secondary characters introduced in this book. Sheng Pa, the head of the Beggar's Guild of Poo-yang, is a great mix of comic foil and shrewd rogue. Magistrate Lo, the head of the neighboring district of Chin-hwa, will reappear in a number of works; he's a playboy with multiple wives and numerous concubines, loves to entertain, publishes poetry, but is also whip-smart and misses nothing. He's an entertaining character and fun to read about.

So, despite some flaws, this is still Required Reading, so check it out.

Judge Dee: A Short Case from Han-Yuan

Back to China! I should have covered Dee's one short story from that period, but forgot, so here it is.

"The Murder on the Lotus Pond" is a mixture of two cases, actually. One is the murder of an elderly poet in his pavilion on a lotus pond; the other is of the robbery of a treasury courier. Both cases are solved cleverly by the use of some decoy interviews with beggars, a very nice stratagem.

It's also nice in describing the poet's home, a small country house with a charmingly overgrown garden, and an appealing character in the poet's wife, Agate, a former courtesan with a noble character.

A nice little story, and part of the "Judge Dee at Work" collection.

Judge Dee: Monkeys and Monks

A gibbon, not one who wrote "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire."

Here are two cases from Dee's years in Han-Yuan...

The first is a novella, "The Morning of the Monkey," contained in a two-part volume, The Monkey and the Tiger.

Judge Dee is taking his morning tea on the back porch of his official residence in Han-Yuan, watching the gibbons sporting in the trees. When he spots that one of the gibbons is carrying a gold ring, he tempts it with other objects until it's dropped. He retrieves the ring, obviously valuable, thinking to return it to its owner...until he spots dried blood on it. It could have an innocent explanation, but when Dee and newly-adopted assistant Tao Gan investigate, they discover the corpse of an old man, with his head bashed in and his fingers cut off.

Then follows a tale of vagabonds, pathetic love, and an ultimately sad and tragic ending. We get glimpses of the lives of criminal-fringe vagabonds and also of druggists and apothecaries of ancient China. There's also smuggling and Tao Gan proving his mettle with sly manipulation. It's a good story if a bit downbeat.

Next in the series' chronology is The Haunted Monastery.

 Dee and his wives, accompanied by Tao Gan, are on their way back to Han-Yuan from a visit to the Capitol when a vicious storm in the mountains, and a broken axle on their cart, force them to beg a night's lodging at a the Monastery of the Morning Clouds, a Taoist institution in the mountains overlooking Han-Yuan. It's a big night, the 203rd anniversary of its founding, but also dark deeds are afoot...

Dee overhears ghostly whispers giving his name, and then in a flash, he looks out a window and sees a room across the courtyard where a mutilated woman is defending herself from an attacker dressed in old-style armor. But when he looks out again, there's nothing but a blank wall. Was it a supernatural vision? Or something more mundane? And there's all sorts of interesting folks in the monastery, including a troupe of actors, a snarky poet, a would-be nun, and a former Imperial tutor who lives there in retirement.

Again, there are three cases here. In "The Case of Embalmed Abbot" Dee teams with the poet to investigate the possible murder of the former abbot. In "The Case of the Pious Maid," there's mystery surrounding the identity of the would-be Taoist nun, including a dancer who looks just like her, and soon she vanishes from her room. And "The Case of the Morose Monk" gives us the mystery of an extra monk with a gloomy face who appears here and there in the monastery; who is he and what is his secret?

This was my first exposure to Dee; I picked this up in a used bookstore back in the early 80s, driven by my memories of a TV-movie version of this, Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders, which aired in 1974 and starred Khigh Dhiegh as Dee, with Mako, Soon-Tek Oh, and James Hong. (I've always wondered if they were testing the waters for a Judge Dee series in the U.S.; there had been one on the BBC once upon a time, and Dee's been the subject of a number of movies in Asia that never make it stateside.) And it's a lot of fun; there's the depiction of a Taoist monastery, the lives of the actors and acrobats who are visiting, and the depiction of Dee's home life. This is the first time we're shown Dee's three wives all together and interacting.

One part of it I also really liked was a very appealing character, Miss Ting, one of the acrobat/actors. She's a tough, smart, capable woman who's of genuine aid to Dee and one almost wishes she would stick on as a permanent Watson. There's a nice scene, too, where she confesses to Dee that she feels an odd attraction to another woman in the troupe, but isn't sure exactly how she feels about the situation. Although it is given a too-tidy resolution, Dee's advice to her is good; he tells her to not do anything until she's absolutely sure of her feelings and of the other woman's intentions. Although it may seem a bit hetero-centric, I have to admit it's advice I would give someone in a similar situation.

There's also good character stuff about Tao Gan, including how he seldom sleeps but just sits by candlelight at night, thinking "of this and that." Although Tao has a good sense of humor and all that, you get glimpses of a lonely and sad person who's kept well at bay.

There are a few flaws, including a few too many convenient love stories (although van Gulik seemed aware of this; at one point Dee reflects that perhaps he should quit being a magistrate and become a matchmaker instead), and too many people wanting to find out what happened to their sisters. But that said, it's still a lot of fun and required reading.

Judge Dee: THE CHINESE LAKE MURDERS

It's 666 CE (or AD, depending on your viewpoint), and Judge Dee has been assigned to a new post, as magistrate of Han-Yuan, a city in the mountains on the shore of a lake, without walls but close to the Capitol. Dee is unsure of being in a city without walls, but so far things seem quiet enough.

Until the city's leading citizens honor him with a banquet on a flower boat (a sort of floating restaurant/brothel), and the beautiful dancer Almond Blossom grasps a chance to whisper to Dee that she must speak to him later, and that a dangerous conspiracy was being plotted in that town. But before she can give Dee any information, she is drowned in the lake...

And then we're thrown into another full-blooded mystery/adventure with Dee and his retinue. Again, it's three cases, all connected in some way. "The Case of the Drowned Courtesan" is central; who killed Almond Blossom? Who could have overheard her whispering to Dee? And exactly what is the dangerous conspiracy? In "The Case of the Vanished Bride," a young bride is found dead the morning after her wedding, apparently from hemorrhage after having her hymen broken (rare, but as far as I can tell, not unheard of). Both are children of prominent citizens, and the kerfuffle is made worse when her coffin is opened at the Buddhist temple and is found to contain an unidentified man! And the groom? He vanished as well. Where are they? Finally, "The Case of the Spendthrift Councilor" centers on a former Imperial Councilor living in retirement in the city. He's quite old, seemingly becoming senile, but is also engaging in strange business deals where he's selling off lots of property at a loss. What's going on?

Also, there's something you find in a few of van Gulik's other works, a framing story involving the supernatural. In this case, an official who's involved in a fiendish conspiracy, and plagued with uncontrollable incestuous desires for his own daughter, goes to Han-Yuan and meets a beautiful courtesan who seems to be the answer to his problems...until she tells him a story that forms the story's narrative. Then she becomes a drowned corpse, and her spirit forces him to write everything down before his life ends. It's chilling. (And all of that is in the first chapter, so it's not much of a spoiler.)

Dee's retinue becomes complete in this novel; about halfway through, during an inspection tour of outlying villages, he and his assistants meet an itinerant swindler, Tao Gan, and save him from a pack of angry villagers. Out of gratitude, Tao reforms and pledges his loyalty to Dee, and plays an important role in resolving the mystery.

There's fights, plots, counterplots, passion, secret doors, hidden tunnels, crooked monks, and hints of fearsome supernatural creatures living in the lake. It all ends well, of course, although Dee barely escapes with his job and/or life.

This has always one of my favorite Dee novels; the setting is well-drawn and atmospheric, from the lake to the "Willow Quarter" where the brothels are, to the tribunal and the huge mansions where the wealthy live. And the menace that hangs over all of them.

Required reading, of course.

Judge Dee: THE LACQUER SCREEN

The last case from Dee's sojourn in Peng-lai, only this time he's in a neighboring district.

Dee and his stalwart lieutenant Chiao Tai are on their way home after a conference in the capitol, and stop off in the city of Wei-ping for a week's vacation, incognito. He stops to pay a call on the district's magistrate, Teng, a famed poet who's also noted for his devotion to his beautiful wife, Silver Lotus. Only Dee finds Teng to be irritable and rude, and after he leaves and he and Chiao Tai are supping in a restaurant, a local criminal mistakes them for fellow lawbreakers and takes them to the headquarters of the local underworld, where they get a rare glimpse of the comings and goings of the city's criminals.

Like other books in the series, there's three mysteries going on here, but they're very intertwined and one is barely a mystery at all. In "The Case of the Lacquer Screen," it's revealed that Teng's wife, Silver Lotus, has been murdered in her bed, and Dee ends up simultaneously assisting in a cover-up and trying to uncover what was going on her life that could have possibly led to her death. He also hears a weird story from Teng, of how his life has paralleled a lacquered screen standing in his home, and how now he fears he murdered his wife in a fit of madness. "The Case of the Credulous Merchant" concerns the mysterious suicide of a local merchant, and disappearance of his body. In "The Case of the Faked Accounts" one of the local thieves has a book of strangely altered accounts that links to another mystery in the book.

The separation between the stories is slim; the cases of the Credulous Merchant and the Faked Accounts are really pretty much one and the same, and figures in the other two play roles in the case of the Lacquer Screen. But it's still a good read. There are elements of film noir in the cases of the merchant and the accounts, and the murder of Silver Lotus is overflowing with gothicism and twisted emotions. (There's a great scene where Dee goes with a local thug to where her corpse is lying, in the swamps; he terrifies the man with stories of evil spirits, then casts a mumbo-jumbo spell to keep him in one spot until he's finished.)

There are also a lot of good characterizations. There's the Corporal, the head of the local underworld, an essentially decent man fallen on hard times but who does his best to keep the thugs in line and won't stand for murder. And there's psychotic burglar Kun-Shan, and the Student, a wannabe thief who's not much better. Golden-hearted prostitute Carnation is a valuable ally (and there's a nice scene between her and Dee when they go undercover at a house of assignation).

As always, the reader gets the cast list with the three cases, and an array of illustrations. There's no map of the city, disappointingly, but there is a cool illustration of the four panels of the screen that gives the book its title. And the glimpses into Chinese culture are always good fun. I just loved the bed in the house of assignation, where illicit lovers leave poems, composed on the spot, pinned to the wall all around. Imagine that in a modern motel room...

This isn't the best of the series, but as with all the Dee novels, it's highly recommended.

Judge Dee: Three Short Stories from Peng-Lai

A shot of some old structures in the real Penglai.

Robert van Gulik wrote a number of short stories about Judge Dee, almost all of which are published in one volume, Judge Dee at Work. They are arranged in chronological order, with brief introductory remarks putting each one in context. Since we're following Dee's career in order, we'll tackle the three stories that take place during his tenure in Peng-lai, his first post as magistrate.

In "The Five Auspicious Clouds," Dee is meeting with several notable locals when a tragedy is announced; the wife of Mr. Ho, one of the men in attendance, has hanged herself in their garden pavilion. Dee finds a clue in an incense-clock in a pattern that gives the story its title. It turns out Mrs. Ho might, just might have been unfaithful, and Dee goes to confront the man she was meeting. However, it takes a chance remark to tell Dee who the real murderer is.

It's not a bad story, if a bit lacking in atmosphere. The criminal-caught-by-their-own-chance-remark plot device is fairly hoary but is still used; it's an old reliable, I guess.

"The Red Tape Murder" has Dee on a routine administrative visit to a nearby military garrison, looking over files and records, when he's called in to look into a military matter; an unpopular officer was murdered, shot with an arrow in his own quarters. A well-liked officer is under arrest for the murder, having been in a perfect position to shoot him through the window, from another building. But something doesn't smell right about it, and Dee interviews the suspect and several others involved before finding the real murderer.

This is one of the lesser stories of the book, and I never really liked it. I never found the military setting all that interesting, and the murder method (spoilers!) of a person picking up an arrow between their toes and kicking it into someone's abdomen with enough force to kill them instantly (spoilers end) doesn't seem realistic to me.

The last of the Peng-lai triad is "He Came with the Rain," probably my favorite story in the book. Dee is out for a walk on a dreary morning after a rain, when he learns of a murder in an abandoned watchtower in the marshes outside the city. The apparent killer is under arrest, but Dee has to look deeper. The victim is an ugly, elderly retired pawnbroker from the city; what was he doing out there? He questions a deaf-mute girl who lives in the tower; although almost a half-wit, she gives some valuable information. And a visit to the victim's home provides some surprising clues. Soon the real killer, and the real motive, are revealed.

This story is rich in atmosphere; the descriptions of the misty marsh and the deaf girl's ruined tower are memorable. And yet again, I have a wistful fondness for the victim; he's an unattractive older man, not very well educated...but when Dee visits his home, he finds a beautiful library with tons of books of poetry, with notes in a clumsy hand. As a pawnbroker, he had to restrict his personal feelings, but he had the romantic soul of a poet, and yearned for the passionate love that his ugly face and age made unlikely. Maybe I'd bring him into play if I ever do a "what if" story with Magistrate Wang surviving the poisoning attempt...

Next up is a novel, The Lacquer Screen, in which Dee and Chiao Tai visit a neighboring district...

THE CHINESE GOLD MURDERS by Robert van Gulik

OK, I'm finally getting down to reviewing the Judge Dee series.  Don't sue me.

The Chinese Gold Murders is the third of the establishing quintet of Judge Dee novels, all titled The Chinese (four-letter-word) Murders.  Although coming after two other books in the series, it's the first chronologically, and is missing the opening framing story found in the other four, which all open with an unnamed narrator learning the facts of the novel from a supernatural source.

The year is 663 CE, and young Dee Jen-djieh, only 33, sets off to his first appointment as a district magistrate.  Accompanied by Hoong Liang, an elderly family servant, he encounters two highwaymen, Ma Joong and Chiao Tai, but impresses them so much with his strength of character that they reform and become his stalwart lieutenants.  (I know, it's fairly cliched, but as these characters had already been established, they had to be given origin stories.)  With his retinue established (a fourth lieutenant will be added later), he arrives at his post: the city of Peng-Lai, located across a gulf from Korea, near military grounds and a busy river.  (There is a real Penglai in China, in the correct spot, as part of the city of Yantai, in the Shandong province.)  And then Dee face three cases, as he does in most of the novels; sometimes they're completely separate, other times they're interconnected.

The book has many of the hallmarks of van Gulik's Judge Dee series; a map of the city in which it takes place, illustrations by the author, and a cast of characters at the beginning giving you a list of who's involved in what particular case.  And they're also named: "The Case of the Murdered Magistrate," "The Case of the Bolting Bride," and "The Case of the Butchered Bully."

The first, "The Case of the Murdered Magistrate," is over how the previous magistrate, one Wang Te-hwa, was poisoned in his study, which was locked from the inside.  And there's no apparent motive, either; was he on to something?  In "The Case of the Bolting Bride," a newlywed woman, returning to the city after a visit to her family, vanishes.  Was she abducted? or did she run away? Is she alive or dead? And "The Case of the Butchered Bully" is over the disappearance of an unpopular local, and how he turns up brutally murdered.

Now, what does gold have to do with this?  Well, two of the cases are intertwined, but another ends up on a trail of huge smuggling operation involving members of the local Korean community and shady characters around town. And there's also a possible weretiger prowling outside the city, and the ghost of the dead magistrate showing up in the tribunal...or is it really him?

I'm very fond of this series as a whole, but this novel has two points of special interest for me.  I first read it as a high-school student, after stumbling on one of the later novels at a used book store, and I loved the atmosphere and immersion in an alien culture.  (In fact, the Dee series is often cited by sci-fi and fantasy authors as a perfect way to depict an alien culture in a way that's still comprehensible to the average reader, and they're recommended to many would-be sf/fantasy writers for that reason.  I've also heard of them being read as part of college courses in Chinese history.)

The first point was a minor character, Tang, a haunted, insecure man who's a senior scribe of the Tribunal.  In the course of the novel it's revealed that he's in love with another man, the chief clerk Fan Choong.  Late in the novel he confesses his love for Fan to the Judge, who brushes aside the man's guilt over his attraction, saying, "We go as nature directs us. If thus two adults find each other, it is their own affair. Don't worry about that."  And as a young man dealing with the early stirrings of his homosexuality, I needed to read that.  And, in fact, they're words I remind myself of often as the years go by. In fact, there's pro-gay sentiments expressed here and there in the series, probably to make up for a less-than-enlightened character who shows up in an earlier book. (And remember, this was the late 50s and early 60s; these were radical sentiments for their time.)

Second, I have always been filled with a wistful fondness for the character of the dead magistrate. Van Gulik really makes sure that you get a feel for the kind of man he was, and it's someone who's very likable and sympathetic, if something of a slacker.  There's a great scene where the Judge and Hoong investigate the old magistrate's library, and get a feel for him from his books.  And I'm going to go out on a limb and quote the scene, I love it so.

"Well, Hoong, I have now a fairly clear picture of the murdered man's personality. I have glanced through the volumes with his own poetry; it is written in exquisite style but rather shallow in content. Love poems predominate, most of them dedicated to famous courtesans in the capital or other places where Magistrate Wang served."


"Tang made some veiled remarks just now, your honor," Hoong put in, "to the effect that the magistrate was a man of rather slack morals. He often even invited prostitutes to his house, and had them stay overnight."


Judge Dee nodded.


"That brocade folder you gave me a few moments ago," he said, "contained nothing but erotic drawings. Further, he had a few score books on wine, and the way it is made in various parts of the empire, and on cooking. On the other hand, he had built up a fine collection of the great ancient poets, every volume dog-eared and with his own notes and comments written in on nearly every page. The same goes for his comprehensive collection of works on Buddhism and Taoist mysticism. But his edition of the complete Confucian classics is in as virginal a state as when he purchased it! I further noticed that the sciences are well represented: most of the standard works on medicine and alchemy are there, also a few rare old treatises on riddles, conundrums and mechanical devices. Books on history, statecraft, administration and mathematics are conspicuous by their absence."


Turning his chair round, the judge continued.


"I conclude that Magistrate Wang was a poet with a keen sense of beauty, and also a philosopher deeply interested in mysticism. And at the same time he was a sensual man, much attached to all earthly pleasures - a not unusual combination, I believe.  He was completely devoid of ambition; he liked the post of magistrate in a quiet district far from the capital, where he was his own master and where he could arrange his life as he liked. That is why he didn't want to be promoted - I believe Peng-lai was already his ninth post as magistrate! But he was a very intelligent man of an inquisitive mind - hence his interest in riddles, conundrums and mechanical devices - and that, together with his long practical experience, made him a fairly satisfactory magistrate here, although I don't supposed he was very devoted to his duties. He cared little for family ties; that is why he didn't remarry after his first and second ladies had died, and why he was content with ephemeral liaisons with courtesans and prostitutes. He himself summed up his own personality rather aptly in the name he bestowed on his library."


Judge Dee pointed with his fan at the inscribed board that hung over the door. Hoong couldn't help smiling when he read, "Hermitage of the Vagrant Weed."

I love that. It makes Wang come alive as a likable human being, and I've sometimes speculated about bringing him back to life for my own series of tales...or maybe not.  He had his flaws but was self-aware, and his sharp mind and keen love of beauty have made him something of a role model for me.  I just hope I don't end up like him.

The Chinese Gold Murders has my highest recommendation by default, because I consider the ENTIRE Judge Dee series to be Required Reading.

I'll be following the series in chronological order, so next up will be three short stories set during the Judge's time at Peng-lai.

DEE GOONG AN, translated by Robert van Gulik

This book, and others in the series, are probably unknowingly beloved by all the purveyors of Chinese cuisine in my area, because whenever I reread one of van Gulik's novels, an overwhelming appetite for pot stickers and lo mein overtakes me.

Robert van Gulik was a Dutch diplomat who spent long periods of time in Japan and China, and even served here in DC at the Dutch Embassy. (I may have to swing by there, as a sort of pilgrimage.) He wrote several books on Chinese art and culture, but what he's best remembered for is the long-running series of mystery novels set in T'ang Dynasty China, featuring Judge Dee.

Dee was based on a real Chinese official, Di Renjie (630-700), who had a long illustrious career and eventually became one of the empire's top officials. And Dee was almost a folk hero in China, with many fictional works written about him, including this one.

DEE GOONG AN is an anonymously-written novel from the 18th century, about three fictional cases solved by Dee, and van Gulik translated it in the mid 20th. In his introduction, it's obvious he's read a number of Chinese detective novels, but found this one to be the closest to Western ideas of acceptable detective fiction. Chinese detective novels tend to ramble on and on for volumes, reveal the murderer at the beginning (viewing the puzzle as a chess game between the villain and the hero), and feature heavy supernatural content, including testimony from ghosts and household objects, even with the judge being baffled and aided by dreaded Judge of the Underworld, coming to the mortal world to claim the killer!

There is, however, enough difference in this book to make it interesting. There's three separate cases involved; in this book, they're "The Double Murder at Dawn," "The Strange Corpse," and "The Poisoned Bride." At the beginning, we're given a cast list of the people in the tribunal and of those involved in each case.

In the book, Judge Dee is the magistrate of the district of Chang-Ping, and is aided by his elderly family retainer Hoong Liang, tough guys Mah Joong and Chiao Tai, who are former outlaws, and reformed con man Tao Gan. He first has to deal with a savage double murder among traveling silk merchants. Then, while chasing clues, he stumbles upon a dysfunctional family and suspects the dead father was murdered a year before. Later, a prominent family is in an uproar when a newlywed bride dies on her wedding night, from a mysterious poison.

Some of the traditional mystery stuff we're used to is absent. The killer in the double murder case takes a little bit to identify, and then the problem after that is finding him. The killer in the family case is almost immediately identified, but the issue is figuring out how it was done. And the poisoning case takes some work to figure out the who and how.

There's an interesting entr'acte, a little dramatic scene that reflects on some of the issues in the book. And there's some supernatural content, too. Dee is led to the grave of a murder victim by a ghost, and later the corpse gives a sign that it was the victim of foul play by closing its eyes. And at one point, Dee is sleeping in a temple and has a prophetic dream which gives several clues, but it could at least partially be credited to Dee's subconscious.

And one thing that's seriously cool about this, and the other Dee novels...it's actually illustrated! There's a few reproduction plates and several others done by van Gulik in Chinese style. It really helps in visualizing the characters and their milieu. (The cover picture above is an example.)

DEE GOONG AN is fun, if a teeny bit creaky in spots. There's a couple of elements that show up in van Gulik's novels later, but otherwise it's a good read.

I'm considering rereading the entire van Gulik series, probably in chronological order, instead of publishing order (two different things). Apparently there's another French-language series about Dee, from author Frederic Lenormand, but they're not available in English. And there's a newly-written collection from author Zhu Xiao Di, that I just got, so I'll probably throw that in as well. Look for them, sporadically, in between other projects.