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A review by paul_cornelius
The Chinese Maze Murders by Robert van Gulik
5.0
Coming after his first Judge Dee novel, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, which was a translation of earlier Chinese stories, this novel, The Chinese Maze Murders, was van Gulik's first effort to establish his own fictional world for Judge Dee. (In terms of the chronology of the entire series, Maze Murders fits in at 13th place.) It shows in its resemblances to the first book. It's much more methodical, longer, involved, infused with Chinese cultural practices, and reliant on a more formalized and somewhat distant language. The very passages and dialog seem to exude antiquity. I find all this pleasant. Would that van Gulik had continued with this style of writing, because I would have preferred it over his later versions of Dee, whose voice slipped into a more slangy air and at times verges on being hardboiled.
Three crimes form the core of the tale, all of them leading to murder. But Dee also finds himself involved in a military defense of this new province in which he has taken up duty as magistrate, Lan-Fang, on the northwestern edge of China. Not only does he uncover corruption, adulterous liaisons leading to patricide, and a secret cabal planning to betray the empire, he also reveals a murderess "taking advantage of young girls." Things resolve themselves in the end with a graphic description of public executions. For something written in 1950 and first published in Japanese in 1951, this is pretty risque material. I do think many contemporary readers will be impatient with it, however. But for those willing to indulge in van Gulik's very thorough view of 7th century Tang China, it's a rewarding experience.
Three crimes form the core of the tale, all of them leading to murder. But Dee also finds himself involved in a military defense of this new province in which he has taken up duty as magistrate, Lan-Fang, on the northwestern edge of China. Not only does he uncover corruption, adulterous liaisons leading to patricide, and a secret cabal planning to betray the empire, he also reveals a murderess "taking advantage of young girls." Things resolve themselves in the end with a graphic description of public executions. For something written in 1950 and first published in Japanese in 1951, this is pretty risque material. I do think many contemporary readers will be impatient with it, however. But for those willing to indulge in van Gulik's very thorough view of 7th century Tang China, it's a rewarding experience.