Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong (Sceptre)

Qui Xiaolong was born in Shanghai, China and went to the United States in 1988 to write a book about T.S. Eliot. Then in 1989, The Tiananmen Square Massacre happened, so he decided to remain in the U.S. to avoid persecution back home. 

Death of a Red Heroine is the first book in his series of crime novels featuring Police Inspector Chen Cao who works for the Shanghai Police Department. Cao was a rising star in The Communist Party of the Republic of China and was on the road to become a diplomat. Unfortunately, one of his uncles was found to be a counter-revolutionary so he was assigned to his current position.

In Communist China, even if a distant relative is found to be a counter-revolutionary or if some relative had committed a crime, no matter how minor, it can affect one’s standing in getting a promotion or not. Chen was lucky. Although he was considered “an educated youth” who graduated from high school, he was not sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution “to be reeducated by poor and lower-middle peasants”.

Fortune seemed to smile down upon Chen as he was assigned his own apartment, which was another social problem of living in Shanghai. During Chen’s housewarming party, he received a call from his colleague, Detective Yu Guangming. The body of a young, naked woman was found in a remote area of a canal.

Chen is head of the “special case” department and does not usually deal with homicide cases. However, Detective Yu had informed there was nobody else to handle the case that particular day so he went out to investigate it. Normally, their squad didn’t have to take a case until it was declared “special” by the bureau, usually for an unstated political reason. 

It had been four days and still no one filed a missing persons report. Chen was still contemplating taking the case or not but decided to ask his friend who is also the medical examiner who did the autopsy to give him a detailed description of the victim. Once he got the information, he faxed it along with a picture of the deceased to various units and surprislingly got a response the following week. 

The picture was recognized by a security guard at the Shanghai First Deparment store. The woman said she was going on vacation but had not returned. He showed the picture to the people who worked with her and they all recognized her. Her name was Guan Hongying. “Guan for closing the door. Hong for the color red, and Ying for heroine”. “Red Heroine”. Chen remembered her name. She was a National Model Work and a Party member. 

However, this was the only information that Chen and Yu had but Chen decided that their branch would take the case. He informed his superior that he would treat it as any homicide case and because the victim was a well-known celebrity, he would keep her name out of the news and press. 

As their investigation progresses, it leads them to their number one suspect - Wu Xiaoming, a son of a powerful Communist Party official. People like Wu Xiaming are informally called H.C.C., High Cadre’s Children. They often behave as if they are above the law and that no one can touch them because their parents are in a position that puts fear into the lives of normal people. 

Once Chen Cao’s superior became aware of who their number one suspect was, a lot of pressure was put on them to deter them from continuing the investigation. Chen knows that it is best to tow the Party Line but he cannot in good conscience give up the investigation although he knows that he could be relieved of his duty or worse yet, be taken off the force. Will Chen Cao tow the Party’s line or will he continue the investigation knowing the results might put an end to his career?

It’s not hard to imagine the Republic of China putting the government and the Communist Party first and foremost above everything else. I also imagine the H.C.C. are quite similar in attitudes to children of diplomats, especially embassy kids, which I have had the misfortune of having to deal with when I worked retail. But if there are more people like Detective Chen Cao in China, then I do see hope for China’s future. ~Ernie Hoyt