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A review by indio_ink
Don't Cry, Tai Lake: An Inspector Chen Novel by Qiu Xiaolong
4.0
This is not the first novel of Qiu Xiaolong I've read and I hope it won't be the last.
In this novel"","" he takes on the issue of pollution"","" specifically"","" the strain between China's economic boom and the natural and human resources this boom cannot help but feed on. It starts off a bit predictably at first"","" with his quotations of poetry and short descriptions of Chinese dishes local to the settings of his novels. Also"","" the cumbersome discourse of environmental law and protection gets in the way although the author does try to justify this through the development of various characters in this murder investigation. In the end though"","" he manages to save the novel as his maddeningly slow development of a romantic subplot blossoms"","" just as his hero"","" Inspector Chen unravels the murder's puzzle with all the panache of an actor of Chinese opera or of a poet solving the puzzle which is his own poem.
In this novel"","" he takes on the issue of pollution"","" specifically"","" the strain between China's economic boom and the natural and human resources this boom cannot help but feed on. It starts off a bit predictably at first"","" with his quotations of poetry and short descriptions of Chinese dishes local to the settings of his novels. Also"","" the cumbersome discourse of environmental law and protection gets in the way although the author does try to justify this through the development of various characters in this murder investigation. In the end though"","" he manages to save the novel as his maddeningly slow development of a romantic subplot blossoms"","" just as his hero"","" Inspector Chen unravels the murder's puzzle with all the panache of an actor of Chinese opera or of a poet solving the puzzle which is his own poem.