Death of a Red Heroine

Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong was another selection by my reading group at the local library. It was originally given to us under the pretense that it was a murder mystery set in China that had the added bonus of being a cultural novel. I was very disappointed in the cultural aspect of this book. Aside from a few hundred vague references to “The Party,” the book could have been set in any Chinatown in the US. Change a few names and lose a couple of references and it is simply a murder mystery involving Chinese people. To me the novel read like a slightly smarter version of CSI. The loner detective sets out to solve a political murder case, while his superiors continue to make life hard for him so that he does not ruffle the feathers of the local political big shot. The story had better dialogue than CSI, but the actual murder mystery was less interesting.
It was not all bad, for the mystery lover, this would be an ideal beach book. It is a reasonably quick read and does not require a lot of effort on the part of the reader. I read most of it at the gym while working out and people watching.