History and Mystery Reads

Rating: 8/10

• Accuracy: Rich in Chinese material culture and legal procedure, with van Gulik’s usual open blending of Tang setting and Ming detail.
• Plot: In a lakeside district near the capital, a courtesan drowns after warning Judge Dee of a conspiracy, and a dead bride’s body vanishes from her coffin.
• Clues: Well planted and atmospheric; the lake, the mist and a flower-boat banquet all carry evidence.
• Reveal: Satisfying, with the separate strands converging on a political plot.

Judge Dee has just taken up his post in Han-yuan, a district beside a mysterious lake that locals say swallows the drowned forever. At a banquet on a flower boat, a courtesan whispers a warning to him about a plot. Before she can say more, she is found dead in the water.

Meanwhile, a young bride has died on her wedding night, and when her coffin is opened, the body is gone. The two mysteries, and a third involving a missing girl, lead Dee toward conspirators with ambitions reaching the imperial court.

This is one of van Gulik’s most atmospheric books. The lake, with its mists and legends, gives the story a dreamlike quality, and the courtesan’s warning at the beginning creates immediate tension. The flower-boat scenes, with poetry, music and drinking games, show the elegant side of the magistrate’s world that van Gulik knew from his scholarship.

The puzzles are fair and well integrated. Dee reasons from details of clothing, customs and topography, and the political conspiracy gives the solutions a larger meaning.

The drawbacks are van Gulik’s usual ones. The assistants are more colourful than developed, and the dialogue can be stiff. Some of the sexual content, typical of the series, feels voyeuristic.

The 8 reflects one of the best Judge Dee novels, notable for its setting and for balancing multiple cases gracefully. It is a strong alternative starting point to The Chinese Bell Murders.