Don't Cry Tai Lake

Don't Cry Tai Lake: an Inspector Chen Novel by Qiu Xiaolong is both an absorbing detective story and an environmental expose of the dark side of industrial growth in China. Chief Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Department finds himself on an unscheduled vacation, as a senior party official insists that Chen take his place at a luxury resort on the shores of Tai Lake. It isn't long before Chen becomes involved in a murder investigation. The director of one of the major chemical factories that dumps pollutants into the lake is murdered. A local environmental activist is being held for the crime, but Chen, attracted to a beautiful environmental engineer named Shanshan, who is also fighting the factory's deceptive polluting practices, decides to do his own private investigation. The more he learns about the destruction of the once beautiful lake, the more determined Chen is to find the murderer and to expose the corruption that is destroying Tai Lake. Chen has no authority in Wuxi, but Sergeant Huang of the local police and a big fan of Chen's agrees to "play Dr. Watson to Chen's Sherlock Holmes." Don't Cry Tai Lake is the most recent of a series of Inspector Chen mysteries. The author has also written two books of translations of traditional Chinese poetry as well as one book of his own poems. Poetry appears throughout the book, adding beautiful interludes as Chan both woos Shanshan and describes the struggle over the lake's future through verse. Recommended.