Master detective Judge Dee sets out to solve a puzzling double murder
and discovers that complicated passions lurk beneath the seemingly
tranquil landscape of academic life. A student has been murdered; a
beautiful poetess is accused of whipping her maidservant to death; and
further mysteries lie in the shadows of the Shrine of the Black Fox.
"The China of old, in Mr. van Gulik's skilled hands, comes vividly alive
again."--Allen J. Hubin, New York Times Book Review
"If you have not yet discovered Judge Dee, I envy you that initial
pleasure . . . the discovery of a great detective story. For the
magistrate of Poo-yan belongs in that select group headed by Sherlock
Holmes."--Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times
"Pleasing as a cup of jasmine tea."--Parade of Books
Robert van Gulik (1910-67), a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese
history and culture, drew his plots from the popular detective novels
that appeared in seventeenth-century China.