When Red is Black

This third novel offers further fascinating insights into a country and procedures so far neglected by mystery fiction. Chen is a great creation, an honourable man in a world full of deception and treachery who is trying hard to apprehend the new world of China in transition, where communism still reigns but blatant capitalism is also tolerated, with its ensuing waves of criminality . . . Connections and motives unfold like clockwork, and make for a great read. - Guardian

Chen is a great creation, an honourable man in a world full of deception and treachery - Guardian

With strong and subtle characterisation, Qui Xiaolong draws us into a fascinating world where the greatest mystery revealed is the mystery of present-day China itself. - John Harvey

Chen is the fascinating creation of poet and translator Qiu Xiaolong . . . As in Qiu's first two books, the ghosts of Mao's bloody Cultural Revolution . . . lead to murder. - Chicago Tribune

Read When Red is Black for insights into understanding today's Shanghai and China. - St. Louis Post Dispatch

A luminescent synthesis of a thriller and a literary novel - Independent on A LOYAL CHARACTER DANCER

Chen stands in a class with Martin Cruz Smith's Russian investigator, Arkady Renko, and P.D. James's Scotland Yard inspector, Adam Dalgliesh. - Publishers Weekly (Starred review)

Compelling - Times-Picayune (New Orleans)