u6iowy6ak3zf40zrsp8oe0gtzj9nSynopsis: : Chengdu, Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China – a city beset by mid-summer heat, rainstorms, and murder. Prosecutor Xu Ya of the People’s Procuratorate is summoned in the middle of the night to the disturbing death of a famous and politically-connected businessman in Plum Tree Pagodas, a luxury apartment complex owned by the influential family Fu – and ordered to investigate with the utmost secrecy. Meanwhile, Philip Ye, a homicide detective with Chengdu Public Security Bureau, has just returned from an ill-tempered holiday in the U.K. to discover that his unhappy protégé, Constable Ma Meili, has, against his strict instructions, taken on the case of a vicious killing of a retired army general – a crime that intrigues Philip Ye so much that he adopts the investigation as his own. Little do Philip Ye and Prosecutor Xu know that their respective investigations will yet again set them on a collision course – and that the assassins of both the businessman and retired army general are still stalking the rainswept streets of Chengdu.”

My Review

This was another fab buddy read with Yvo @ It’s All About Books, even though we’re in completely different parts of the world. I’m in Jersey in the Channel Islands, so part of the British Isles, and Yvo is in Argentina, but we’ve done it a few times before, so the time difference wasn’t a problem at all. We discussed the book, with it’s characters, twists and turns, by messaging each other on Twitter.

We really enjoyed the first book The Willow Woman as a buddy read a few years ago, so when we heard there was another book featuring homicide Detective Philip Ye, we jumped at the chance of buddy reading this one too!

I must admit that when I first set eyes on the physical book I was rather intimidated as it’s a BIG book at 681 pages. Normally I read books with around 300 to 350 pages so you can understand why! 😂 Fortunately the size didn’t matter one bit, as the pace was quick and the plot intriguing.

It was good to get back to the characters from the first book Philip Ye, Constable Ma, Fatty Deng, Mouse and of course Prosecutor Xu Ya. Yvo and I had forgotten some of their characteristics, so it was fun remembering how outrageously rude Constable Ma was and how ‘gifted’ Philip Ye was in regards to the paranormal aspects of the book.

We kept wondering where it was headed next and whether Fatty Deng, Prosecutor Xu Ya, Philip Ye and Constable Ma could track down the killers, before there was another murder.

As well as murder there was also a bit of a ‘will they won’t they’ romance going on between Xu Ya and Philip Ye. Mostly in Xu Ya’s mind though, as no-one ever really knows what was going on in Philip’s head as he’s very hard to read and very moody! It made for some amusing interactions between them.

Highly recommended if you enjoy detective books.

Thanks so much to the author for sending me a lovely signed copy for review.