ABOUT THIS BOOK

A fiendishly clever, yet cozy entry in the much-loved mystery series starring Judge Dee, whom the Los Angeles Times ranked with Sherlock Holmes

Early in his career, Judge Dee visits a senior magistrate who shows him a beautiful lacquer screen on which a scene of lovers has been mysteriously altered to show the man stabbing his lover. The magistrate fears he is losing his mind and will murder his own wife. Meanwhile, a banker has inexplicably killed himself, and a lovely lady has allowed Dee's lieutenant, Chiao Tai, to believe she is a courtesan. Dee and Chiao Tai go incognito among a gang of robbers to solve this mystery, and find the leader of the robbers is more honorable than the magistrate.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Robert Van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. He drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially from the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century.

REVIEWS

“One of the most satisfyingly devious of the Judge Dee novels, with unusual historical richness in its portrayal of the China of the T’ang dynasty.”

— New York Times Book Review

”Even Judge Dee is baffled by Robert van Gulik’s new mysteries in The Lacquer Screen. Disguised as a petty crook, he spends a couple of precarious days in the headquarters of the underworld, hobnobbing with the robber king. Dee’s lively thieving friends furnish some vital clues to this strange and fascinating jigsaw.”

— The Spectator

”So scrupulously in the classic Chinese manner yet so nicely equipped with everything to satisfy the modern reader.”

— New York Times

“Entertaining, instructive and oddly impressive. Judge Dee, the officers of his tribunal and the people with whom he and they are concerned are interesting folk, and the world of crime, mystery, violence, lust, corruption and ceremony in which they move is formidably picturesque.”

— Times Literary Supplement

“The China of old, in Mr. van Gulik’s skilled hands, comes vividly alive again.”

— Allen J. Hubin, New York Times Book Review

“If you have not yet discovered Judge Dee and his faithful Sgt. Hoong, I envy you that initial pleasure which comes from the discovery of a great detective story. For the magistrate of Poo-yang belongs in that select group of fictional detectives headed by the renowned Sherlock Holmes.”

— Robert Hirsch, Los Angeles Times

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Judge Dee Has Tea with Magistrate Teng
Judge Dee and Chiao Tai Take a Bath
Magistrate Teng Hears the Banker Leng Chien
The Taproom of the Phoenix Inn
Magistrate Teng Discovers His Wife
Chiao Tai Watches a Charming Lady
Kun-shan Angrily Leaves the Restaurant
Judge Dee and Carnation
Judge Dee and Pan Yoo-te in Mr. Ko's Bedroom
Commotion in the Phoenix Inn

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