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The Chinese Nail Murders

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Series
  
Media type
  
Print

Originally published
  
1961

Page count
  
216

4.1/5
Goodreads

Publication date
  
1961

Pages
  
216

Followed by
  

Publisher
  
Michael Joseph (UK)Harper & Row (US)

Genres
  
Gong'an fiction, Mystery, Detective fiction, Chinese crime fiction

Similar
  
Works by Robert van Gulik, Judge Dee mystery books, Gong'an fiction books

The Chinese Nail Murders is a gong'an detective novel written by Robert van Gulik and set in Imperial China (roughly speaking the Tang Dynasty). It is a fiction based on the real character of Judge Dee (Ti Jen-chieh or Di Renjie), a magistrate and statesman of the Tang court, who lived roughly 630–700 BC.

Plot introduction

Judge Dee, and his four helpers, solve three murders: that of an honored merchant, a master of martial arts, and the wife of a merchant, whose corpse has no head. Judge Dee soon comes under pressure from higher-ranking officials to end his investigation. Naturally, Judge Dee refuses to give up until he has learned the whole truth.

A nail murder was a motif of crime in ancient China.

The case of the headless corpse was based on an actual 13th-century Chinese murder casebook.

References

The Chinese Nail Murders Wikipedia


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