Pékin s’apprête à accueillir les Jeux Olympiques quand plusieurs des meilleurs athlètes chinois sont trouvés morts. Li Yan et Margaret Campbell, enceinte jusqu’aux oreilles, mènent l’enquête. Un roman, le cinquième de la série, qui mêle avec un agréable dosage et un suspens bien mené intimité des personnages, culture et arts de vivre en Chine, politique et corruption. ( )

I have mixed feelings about May's books. While I really enjoyed the Lewis trilogy, the Enzo Files series had much less appeal and this book falls into the latter group. Some authors can write intimate scenes well, May can be cringeworthy.

This is the first I've read in this series and I found the story to be well written with likeable characters and it provided a good overview of China and Chinese culture as they prepared for the 2008 Olympics. Li Yan is investigating a series of deaths among China's top athletes. Margaret Campbell, who is only a month away from delivering their first child, is performing the autopsies. The investigation becomes a diplomatic minefield, not unlike the private lives of Margaret and Li. ( )

This book is a reprint of the 2013 edition. It is the fifth in the series featuring Li Yan, a section chief of the serious crime unit of the Beijing Police, and Margaret Campbell, a renowned American pathologist living in Beijing and awaiting both her wedding and the birth of their first child.

When Li’s section catches a politically-sensitive death of a weightlifter expected to medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he’s aware of the political ramifications of the case. When a young detective investigating the apparent suicide of a swimmer, suggests that the suicide isn’t what it seems, Li finds out there have been five other athlete deaths. Li knows that these latest deaths will be a nightmare to solve and will put him and his team squarely in the spotlight as the Olympic games drawer ever nearer. Worse, he needs an expert pathologist to perform the autopsies, and only one comes to mind, Margaret Campbell.

This is a very well written book, with carefully drawn and likable characters, an intriguing setting, and complicated murders.

While this is the fifth in the series, the author was careful not to assume that everyone had read the first four books so this entry reads like a standalone book. Some readers may have difficulty with the Chinese place names and, in some cases, individual’s names, but she will quickly learn the author has not assumed we’ve all been to Beijing and so gives us information about where Li goes that serves the reader well.

If you like well-written procedurals with likable characters and set in foreign settings, then this book and this series are for you, and should be placed high on your TBR pile. ( )

Brilliant chinese thriller ( )

THE RUNNER is fifth in Peter May's Chinese thriller series featuring Beijing detective Li Yan, Section chief of the Serious Crime Squad, and his lover American pathologist Margaret Campbell.

China is preparing for the 2008 Olympics, and a competition in a variety of sports against the USA on home soil suffers a serious setback when their top swimmer is found hanging from the diving board at the aquatic centre. Apparently he has committed suicide.

A second death occurs when a young weight lifter dies of a heart attack during sex with the wife of a Beijing Olympic Committee official. There seems no evidence to indicate other than natural causes. Should the death get out though, it will cause create embarrassment to the Olympic Committee struggling to get China ready for the coming Beijing Olympics.

In fact Beijing appears to be in the grip of a crime wave. Li realises there have now been 6 deaths involving top level athletes, and begins to look for connecting threads.

Life is not a bed of roses either in the continuing story of Li Yan and Margaret Campbell. They are expecting a baby in four weeeks, and it is not government policy to allow a senior police officer to remain in office after marrying a foreign national. Margaret believes his marriage will entitle Li to married men's quarters. Li's father and Margaret,s mother will both arrrive soon for the wedding.

I have only read the frst in the series, THE FIREMAKER, in thise series and have always promised myself AI will read more. THE RUNNER did not disappoint, and I think you could read it quite well as a stand-alone. What adds to the enjoyment of THE RUNNER is the way Peter May blends details of Chinese culture, descriptions of how Beijing is preparing for the Olympics, with forensic details related to the deaths of the athletes.

I read THE RUNNER both as a review book on my Kindle, as well as part of the 2010 Global Reading Challenge. ( )