Trigger warning for anti-Chinese racism.
Lao She lives a quiet life in London, teaching Mandarin at the University of London and making eyes at the daughter of his landlady, until he gets swept up in a series of murders and general skullduggery in The Murder of Mr. Ma, by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan. Lao She (modeled on the author and scholar of the same name) and his commanding new acquaintance, Judge Dee Ren Jie, take the city by storm.
When he receives a summons from the renowned scholar Bertrand Russell, Lao She hurries off from his lodgings in the hopes of intellectual conversation only to find out that Russell wants his help in springing a friend from jail. Lao She is very reluctant until he learns that the friend is the famous Judge Dee. Dee got caught up in a small riot and needs to get out of jail before his old nemesis, a detective for the Metropolitan Police, finds out he’s there. A little bit of subterfuge frees Dee to resume his original mission: to find out what happened to a Chinese shopkeeper and transport the man’s body back to China for burial.
Nothing is ever simple with Dee, of course, and one murder turns into an entire series for Dee to solve. Lao She volunteers himself to help. His students are terrible at learning Mandarin and he doesn’t have much else to occupy his time; he could use some excitement. Besides, how could he pass up a chance to work with Judge Dee? Together, Judge Dee, Lao She, and another of Dee’s friends (an herbalist named Hoong) rocket around London as they gather clues and question witnesses. There are ample wuxia-style fight scenes that I wish I could see on film. The authors don’t skimp on characterization, either. It was heartbreaking to watch Lao She realize how much he’s been fooling himself about how his British acquaintances really feel about him. Dee’s struggle with opium is similarly heartwrenching. All of this plus a fascinatingly tangled mystery kept my nose firmly buried in this book until its last page.