My experience reading Death of a Red Heroine is a testament to the powers of participating in reading challenges. If it were not for the alphabet challenge where I am always trying to find authors that meet the Q/X/Y/Z categories I might not have ever tried this detective story set in Shanghai. The book is written by Qiu Xiaolong I ended up really enjoying the storyline and the historical perspective of China as it was transitioning into a more capitalist approach to its economy. The plot highlights the importance of the Party and the High Ranking Cadres' ability to get things done to their advantage; something those without the connections cannot readily achieve. In many ways, it reminded me of the old money influence in the US. The wealth/power that exists acts as a barrier to newcomers entering the markets. I did enjoy the book and may give the next in the series a go in the future.
Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I selected this audiobook from my library mainly because it sounded interesting and the author's name allowed me to fulfill some harder letters in the alphabet challenge. I ended up with a pleasant surprise and learned a lot about the history of China from an author who was born there. The intricacies of the Party establishment and the country's situation post-Tiananmen Square protests were a very interesting backdrop to a detective mystery. This is definitely not a cozy and has some very edgy and graphic details about the murder as well as the sexual exploits of the characters. The mystery is well constructed and details the police work involved in solving crimes, particularly with politically connected suspects and victims. I enjoyed the book and will definitely potentially try another in the series.
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Challenge Prompts
The Challenge Prompts I will use this for are:
- Goodreads and Reading by the Numbers #ReadingByNumbers2023 Book # 51
- Library Love #LibraryLoveChallenge Book # 39
- Audiobook #2023AudiobookChallenge 6
- Literary Escapes #LiteraryEscapes China
- Alphabet Soup Author Edition #AlphabetSoupAuthorChallenge X
- Virtual Mount TBR #VirtualMountTBR2023 Book #44
- Back List Reader #Backlistreader Book #39
- Cloak & Dagger #CloakDaggerChal Book #40
- Medical Examiner Challenge 3 Toe Tags
- Historic Fiction #histficreadingchallenge Book #3
- 52 Book Club #the52bookclub2023 #41 A Character Who is a Refugee
- Beat the Backlist #BTB2023 #45 more than 450 pages
- Nerd Daily #thenerddaily #nerdreading2023 #24. OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE WORLD
- Pick your Poison # 54 A book you expect will expand your initial knowledge of a subject
- Read with Allison #49 Set in the 1990s:
- Monthly Motif #MonthlyMotifGXO Longer than 400 pages
- TBRChallenge #TBRChallenge April- Unusual Historical
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