Soon after taking up his first magisterial post in the godforsaken district of Peng-lai, Judge Dee must look into the murder of his predecessor. His job is complicated by the simultaneous disappearnce of his chief clerk and the new bride of a wealthy local shipowner.

"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, I envy you that initial
pleasure . . . the discovery of a great detective story. For the
magistrate of Poo-yan belongs in that select group headed by Sherlock
Holmes."—Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

Robert van Gulik (1910-67), a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese
history and culture, drew his plots from the popular detective novels
that appeared in seventeenth-century China.