Poets and Murder : A Judge Dee Mystery

Judge Dee, the master detective of seventh-century China, sets out to solve a puzzling double murder and discovers complex passions lurking beneath the placid surface of academic life.A mild-mannered student is rumored to have been slain by a fox-demon, while a young dancer meets her death as she dresses to perform for the magistrate's illustrious dinner guests - an obese Zen monk revered for his calligraphy, a beautiful poetess accused of murder, and the past president of the imperial academy.To connect the present crimes with betrayals and adulteries from decades past, the clever judge must visit a high-class brothel and the haunted shrine of the Black Fox.From the moment the young scholar is found dead on the eve of the Autumn Festival, the pace never lets up.