Qin Ming

Murder in Dragon City is a novel that reads like a memoir, or at some points, like an autopsy report. The author is a medical examiner in China and has published novels there. I think this is his first novel translated into English.

The story is a series of short criminal cases occurring throughout one longer, more complex case. We follow a forensic team, including medical examiner Qin Ming, trace evidence specialist Lin Tao, and intern Big Bao as they move from town to town within their province.

The story is like a written version of CSI: Dragon City. You must be interested in highly involved anatomical and medical details. Our main character (forensic scientist extraordinaire) spends lots of time instructing his intern and a junior trace evidence specialist in the details of his work. It's very talky and bland, as if we were sitting in a med school lecture. The author and translator try to make it chatty, but it just seems forced.

As the forensic team moves around, the author introduces many minor characters. But the three that have any character development are Qin, Big Bao, and Lin Tao. Yet these main characters don't share any introspection with readers despite the type of work they do.

In regard to the plot, the smaller cases all seem to get solved so easily. Later in the book, there's reference to the team's high case closure rate, but nonetheless each murder solved seems almost anticlimactic. Overall, the story is about the investigative and medical details rather than suspense.

I was interested to learn about the different ways crime is approached in China, as well as parts of some cases that touch on ghosts, superstitions, and cultural traditions.

This prose is not lyrical, not beautiful. It is stark as the bright lights of a white-walled autopsy suite. Once I got comfortable with the writing style, I settled in and allowed the details to take over I enjoyed the book.

Thanks to NetGalley and AmazonCrossings for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
… (más)

For readers unused to Chinese fiction this book may disappoint, but I took it for what it is and enjoyed it quite a lot.

Police forensic scientist Qin Ming is a harried civil servant called out at all hours to rush off to crime scenes with his fellow experts in the Crime Scene Unit. They and their police colleagues investigate suspicious deaths and their findings quickly lead to arrests and confession.

The book is really a series of novellas tied loosely together by an unsolved case that is introduced at the beginning. Without that case hanging over Qin Ming's head, each of the crime investigations stands alone.

Police methods in China are different from ours and if you are to believe Qin Ming, the folks at NCIS are sluggards. Qin Ming and his team never fail to identify the guilty party in a few hours, sometimes on very slender evidence and a lot of intuition.

The jaunty tone of this book is very unlike the sober and deliberate tone we are used to with Crime Scene Investigation stories. We learn a lot about forensics and crime scene processing, but with the reckless pace, it feels a bit Keystone Kops, and of course, the methods of the police investigators sometimes give you a jolt. I am reminded of Judge Bao (sometimes "Justice Pao"), an older TV series produced in Hong Kong. He has three different guillotines for chopping off criminal heads. The series is based on the tales of Justice Bao Zheng from the Chinese Song dynasty (you can look him up on Wikipedia). The show swept Asia in 1993 bringing great fame and fortune to the stars. You can watch many of the subtitled episodes of Justice Bao on YouTube.

I received a review copy of "Murder in Dragon City" by Qin Ming translated by Alex Woodend (AmazonCrossing) through NetGalley.com.… (más)

Wow! If you are into the whole CSI thing, you will love this one. If you are into crime fiction, you, too, will be impressed. I have been a nurse for years and worked alongside of law enforcement, so this was right up my alley.
The serial killer mystery was developed in such a way as to gather momentum and keep drawing the reader in. Very well done! With each new set of evidence, a little more insight gained.
As police procedural, it's positively delightful to have a window into how things are done elsewhere, what crimes are the same and which are at least somewhat different. Like the business of gutter oil, a highly illegal practice of recovering cooking oil from some rather disgusting places, straining, repackaging, and selling it cheaply to the poor to be used in their own kitchens. There are some incidental murders which are also investgated, and add to the whole of this excellent work.
There are a lot of cultural practices and attitudes that are critical to understanding the storytelling as well. But the characters are so clearly illustrated that it seems incomprehensible that it not a case of name change to protect the real person!
Basically, if graphic descriptions of decaying corpses and methods of murder/forensic murder investigations offend you, skip this author. If you don't mind, or if they are your cup of tea, you will enjoy and be enriched by reading this smooth and seamless translation of this work by a popular author.
Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to request and read this book!… (más)