Synopses & Reviews
The eight short stories in Judge Dee at Work include characters from van Gulik's other mysteries. A "Judge Dee Chronology" at the back of the book shows how the stories fit together with the other fifteen novels on Judge Dee's life."Delightful novels, so scrupulously in the classic Chinese manner yet so nicely equipped with everything to satisfy the modern reader."—New York Times"Entertaining, instructive and oddly impressive. Judge Dee, the officers of his tribunal and the people with whom he and they are concerned are interesting folk, and the world of crime, mystery, violence, lust, corruption and ceremony in which they move is formidably picturesque."—Times Literary SupplementRobert van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. He drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially from the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century.
Synopsis
The eight short stories in Judge Dee at Work cover a decade during which the judge served in four different provinces of the Tang Empire. From the suspected treason of a general in the Chinese army to the murder of a lonely poet in his garden pavilion, the cases here are among the most memorable in the Judge Dee series.
About the Author
Robert van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. His many works include sixteen Judge Dee mysteries, a study of the gibbon in China, and two books on the Chinese lute.
Table of Contents
1. Five Auspicious Clouds
2. The Red Tape Murder
3. He Came with the Rain
4. The Murder on the Lotus Pond
5. The Two Beggars
6. The Wrong Sword
7. The Coffins of the Emperor
8. Murder on New Year's Eve
Colophon
Judge Dee Chronology