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    The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery
    The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery
    The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery
    Ebook164 pages3 hours

    The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery

    By Robert van Gulik

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A chance encounter with Autumn Moon, the most powerful courtesan on Paradise Island, leads Judge Dee to investigate three deaths. Although he finally teases the true story from a tangled history of passion and betrayal, Dee is saddened by the perversion, corruption, and waste of the world "of flowers and willows" that thrives on prostitution.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press
    Release dateNov 15, 2010
    ISBN9780226849065
    The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery

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    Reviews for The Red Pavilion

    4/5

    88 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      VanGulik's detective is sensitive and sensuous - and he always finds the truth no matter how difficult.
    • 5/5
      Judge Dee stops off on the way back from the capital in Paradise Island, a resort town where fleecing the customer through gambling, prostitution, and drink is the main industry. Judge Dee is too upright for any of that, but his friend Magistrate Lo convinces him to stay an extra day to wrap up a routine suicide case. Dee is then confronted by three unexplained deaths over a period of 30 years in the same locked room, the Red Pavilion, the hotel room he is staying in. Science fiction writers can learn much from van Gulik who subtly fills you in on all the alien details of this distant time and place. Conrad is probably the winner when it comes to writing in English as a second language, but van Gulik holds his own. (Like Necklace and Calabash, the influence of Chandler can be seen, particularly in the great supporting characters of the Crab and the Shrimp.)
    • 4/5
      This Judge Dee mystery falls right in the middle of Van Gulik's canon, both from the chronology of Judge Dee's career and in the order of books written. Judge Dee is fully developed as a protagonist and at his most observant as a detective. However, only one of his retainers is with him in this book, the former robber and now his lieutenant MA Joong. A new reader of the Judge Dee mysteries might want to start with one of the earlier books to become familiar with Judge Dee and his world.In The Red Pavilion Judge Dee is traveling back to his home province and breaks his journey on Paradise Island, a sort of medieval Chinese Las Vegas where every pleasure, from gambling to epicurean dinners to pleasures of the flesh, can be had for the right amount of money. Dee is roped into becoming a temporary magistrate of the court when his colleague, Magistrate LO Kwan-Choong, has to leave his province for a personal "emergency." He asks Dee to formally certify the suicide of a prominent scholar, merely a rubber-stamp case which just needs official verification at the next session of the court.As in all of Dee's mysteries, this one innocuous case leads to an investigation and Dee ends up investigating not only the scholar's death, but also the death of the premier courtesan of Pleasure Island. Both deaths are linked to a murder committed thirty years ago. Using his vast knowledge of human nature and of the law, Dee is able to untangle the mysteries of the Red Pavilion where all three deaths occurred. While he gathers information from the upperclass residents and visitors to Paradise Island, his lieutenant frequents the gambling halls and brothels to get the street version of the three deaths.The enjoyment of a Judge Dee mystery is not just in the puzzles which never fail to please, but also in the details of life in China during the seventh century. Van Gulik, a China scholar, goes into minute detail about everything from the different styles of beards worn by men to the execution of the swift and harsh justice of the courts. He sketches intricate maps of the locales, and includes illustrations of the characters in the style of the period. (A woman can be portrayed naked as long as her feet are not exposed. That would make the picture indecent, if not pornographic.)Another very satisfying glimpse in the career of Judge Dee.
    • 5/5
      After The Haunted Monastery, this one is my favorite. We find our hero Judge Dee on the pleasure capital called Paradise Island, where, as usual, he must deal with murder & mayhem. It is just so cool to read these stories & get a bit of a feel for everyday life in ancient China.#9 in the series

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    The Red Pavilion - Robert van Gulik

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