This is the author's first venture in to fiction and it is thoroughly absorbing. The details about China and it’s history are fascinating as well as the characters being interesting and original. Mei Wang is the private detective hired to track down a Han dynasty jade that went missing years before, soon she finds herself more personally involved in the case than she expected. A delightful read.
Mei is a modern, independent Chinese woman; she runs her own business in Beijing, working as a private investigator, owns a car, and even has that most modern of commodities, a male secretary. One day, ‘Uncle’ Chen -- no relation but a close friend of her mother’s -- approaches Mei and asks her to find the Eye of Jade. A Han dynasty artefact of great value, the Eye of Jade was taken from a museum during the years of the Cultural Revolution, when Red Guards swarmed the streets.
The case forces Mei to delve into a dark part of China’s history -- Mao’s labour camps and the countless deaths for which no-one was ever held responsible -- and exposes the agonising choices made during the Revolution. But Mei’s investigations also reveal a story that has far more to do with the past, and her own family history, than she could ever have expected.
Liang has captured Beijing’s bustle and noise perfectly and, with its rich cast of characters, The Eye of Jade offers a fascinating glimpse of city life in modern China.
‘With her snappy intelligence and sharp intuition, Diane Wei Liang’s private investigator Mei could give Alexander McCall Smith’s No1 Ladies’ Detective Agency a run for its money’ South China Morning Post
‘Bridget Jones meets Val McDermid’ Tribune
Author
About Diane Wei Liang
Diane Wei Liang was born in China in 1966, the year the Cultural Revolution began. She was studying at Beijing University in the 1980s but was forced to leave and continue her studies in the USA because of her involvement in the students' revolt that led to the Tiananmen Square massacre. She now lives in London, where she teaches business management at Royal Holloway, and is married with two small children.
