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by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan
For fans of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films, this stunning, swashbuckling series opener by a powerhouse duo of authors is at once comfortingly familiar and tantalizingly new.
Two unlikely allies race through the cobbled streets of 1920s London in search of a killer targeting Chinese immigrants.
London, 1924. When shy academic Lao She meets larger-than-life Judge Dee Ren Jie, his quiet life abruptly turns from books and lectures to daring chases and narrow escapes. Dee has come to London to investigate the murder of a man he'd known during World War I when serving with the Chinese Labour Corps. No sooner has Dee interviewed the grieving widow than another dead body turns up. Then another. All stabbed to death with a butterfly sword. Will Dee and Lao be able to connect the threads of the murders—or are they next in line as victims?
Blending traditional gong'an crime fiction with the most iconic aspects of the Sherlock Holmes canon, Dee and Lao's first adventure is as thrilling and visual as an action film, as imaginative and transportive as a timeless classic.
What are you reading this week? (02/20/2025)
I finished The Jackal's Mistress and now I'm reading The Antidote. My gosh, what a complex book! There's a LOT going on here. I wish it was slated as an online discussion book, I think it would make a doozy of a book group choice. I finished the Silo series in audiobook. I had a hard time finishi...
-kim.kovacs
"A bewitching series kickoff ... The intricate plot, which is bolstered by vivid period detail and playfully riffs on real-life figures in Chinese history (including Lao), is enhanced by healthy doses of humor and well-orchestrated action. Readers will be clamoring for a sequel." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Rozan and comics exec Nee create a distinct sense of time and place in this brisk adventure ... Lao narrates their adventures as Dee impersonates a street legend, 'Springheel Jack, the Terror of London,' swinging from lampposts and launching himself across rooftops in search of a killer. Fans of the Sherlock Holmes canon will appreciate this fast-paced, exciting novel." —Library Journal (starred review)
"Judge Dee, though fighting his addiction to opium, manages to come up with a plausible reason why so many members of the battalion have met sudden deaths and to excel in the bouts of martial arts in which so many scenes of conflict end ... First of a series that's acutely attuned to British racism between the two world wars." —Kirkus Reviews
"A high-energy, rambunctious tale ... The authors do a wonderful job of depicting the bustling London of the '20s, the Chinese community and the relentless racism and stereotypes it is a victim of, and absolutely fabulous displays of martial arts. There's word that Dr. Dee may be returning to solve another case; here's hoping he does!" —First Clue Reviews
"The compelling plot moves along swiftly. Further, it's filled with booby-trapped buildings, masterful disguises (including Springheel Jack), the click of mah-jongg tiles, and the awful prejudice that pervaded the times in which the novel is set. Forget the time anomaly: take a journey back a hundred years with a 1,300-year-old character. You won't regret it." —Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine
This information about The Murder of Mr. Ma was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
John Shen Yen Nee is a half Chinese, half Scottish American media executive, producer and entrepreneur who was born in Knoxville, grew up in San Diego, and is now based in Los Angeles, with a penchant for very long run-on sentences. He has served as president of WildStorm Productions; senior vice president of DC Comics; publisher of Marvel Comics; CEO of Cryptozoic Entertainment; and cofounder of CCG Labs. You can read more about him at www.johnnee.com.
SJ Rozan is the best-selling author of twenty novels and over eighty short stories, and editor of three anthologies. Her multiple awards include the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, Macavity; Japanese Maltese Falcon; and the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award. She's served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and as president of Private Eye Writers of America. She was born in the Bronx and lives in Manhattan.
If you liked The Murder of Mr. Ma, try these:
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Judge Dee and Lao She must use all their powers of deduction—and kung fu skills—to take down a sinister conspiracy between Imperial Russia, Japan, and China in a rollicking new mystery set in 1920s London.
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