Publisher's Weekly Review
In Klingborg's sharply detailed third Lu Fei mystery (after 2022's Wild Prey), the detective--now banished from his post in Harbin to a rural county--is called in to investigate the incineration of a Korean gangster. Fei quickly uncovers that the slaying is part of an increasingly gruesome pattern targeting a corrupt group of senior Chinese civil servants. Meanwhile, an avenging angel named Hak is operating in Harbin, seeking to liberate sex trafficking victims who've been kidnapped and smuggled into the country from North Korea. Lu and Hak eventually join forces and the action goes from traditional sleuthing to hyperviolent revenge fantasy as they take down common enemies together. The conclusion is expertly rendered, and Klingborg does an exceptional job of illuminating Xi Jinping's China to outside observers without being pedantic or heavy-handed. This is sure to earn the series new readers. Agent: Bob Diforio, D4EO Literary. (May)
Kirkus Review
In the midst of a national celebration, who is terrorizing the VIPs of Nangang? Golden Week, which celebrates the founding of the People's Republic of China, has left Director Chen Jianguo of the Nangang Investment Inviting Organization none too steady in the middle of a multiday drinking binge. He offers little resistance when a masked man calling himself Zhang commands him to get into a car, where he's assaulted. Days later, Director Liu of the Nangang District Public Rental Housing Corporation suffers a similar and harsher punishment, the branding of his forehead with the word thief. Zhang's parting words: "The Magistrate sends his regards." Attacks mount over the subsequent weeks. A third victim has his hand cut off, and a fourth attack escalates into murder. Government officials tamper with the crime scene of highly ranked prosecutor Mr. Cai to suggest suicide and prevent a public outcry. All the victims are or were members of the Nangang Benevolent Association. Before the investigation ensnares the newly engaged Lu Fei, now the Deputy Chief of the Raven Valley District of northern China, it's mangled by the machinations of disgraced ex-politician Gao Yang and Mr. Xu, the Chief of Homicide in Harbin, a hop-skip from Raven Valley, and not incidentally, Lu Fei's sworn enemy. Klingborg's third Inspector Lu Fei mystery is also an immersion into the current Chinese sociopolitical situation, which informs every stage of this brutal crime spree. The large cast of shady characters that populates his tale of venality and governmental corruption is balanced by the righteous Lu Fei, a beacon of integrity. A complex, challenging crime yarn. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The Inspector Lu Fei mysteries (Thief of Souls, 2021, and Wild Prey, 2022), set in a remote region of northeast China, blend police procedural with searing indictments of corrupt practices by the current Chinese Communist Party. This time the main focus is on how party members profit from the sex trafficking of young Korean women, who are lured to China with promises of good jobs and then forced into no-way-out lives of prostitution. Klingborg makes this startlingly real for readers by showing two young Korean women, imprisoned in a tiny room, working as cybersex workers. The women's plight connects to a series of street attacks on businessmen and a badly burned body found near an expressway--all the victims are left with a note from "The Magistrate." Although Lu Fei's character isn't as well drawn as in previous entries, the issues raised here are alarming, and readers will appreciate the ingenuity of Lu Fei's team in uncovering a vigilante plot and the larger scheme to keep sex trafficking going.
