Midnight in Peking.

What a great read. Cheers Carmel for the recommendation.  This book was a factual report of the real life investigation into the murder of Pamela, a 17 year old English girl found brutally murdered and mutilated under a tower in Beijing in the early hours of Jan 6th 1937. 

It is an account of how the investigation progresses and all the hurdles, dead ends and cover-ups which are encountered along the way. It all happens against the backdrop of fear of Japanese invasion and civil war between nationalists and communists, with the Brits trying to hang on to their interests by a thread. 

I loved the claustrophobic build up of fear and tension and the madness of the people. Everyone knew invasion by the Japanese was imminent. These were the last days of old Peking, and my God, what a place!

I absolutely loved the atmosphere the author created.  The characters and sense of place meant you could almost smell the fear, corruption and poverty hanging around the city at the time. The history of Beijing is told so well through the people who inhabit this book, both dead and alive. The grimy back streets, the rickshaw drivers, the opium addicts, the whores and pimps, the poverty stricken stateless Russians who supported the Tsar, Chinese thugs/nationalists/communists, Japanese thugs/ fascists ,the Jews, Koreans, British beurocrats and civil servants trying to keep face, exhausted coppers, American dentists,  nude dancers, hermaphrodite Russian madams with a heart. A great cast! I also feel like I have a personal taste of the events which befell Beijing during the 30s and 40s. Good god, what a time.

 Suddenly I understood why the Brits and French had to live in legations. These quarters were the only areas which were safe because of uprisings and rebellions. Laws inside these legations were different; the Chinese and British policemen were banned from investigating within their boundaries. This was so the Brits could keep face under such traumatic historical events which were unfolding around them. The thought that there was a sadistic murderer amongst them was just too much to admit.

What happened to Pamela scared locals to death. it was a highly grotesque murder. She was a fluent mandarin speaker, a girl with spirit why on Earth was she so hideously murdered? If you want to find out and have an interest  in the darker side of life read this book!