Skip to main content

Review: Midnight in Peking, by Paul French


Pages: 259
Original date of publication: 2013
My copy: 2013 (Penguin)
Why I decided to read:
How I acquired my copy: Phoenix bookstore, May 2013

In January 1937, the body of a young British girl, Pamela Werner, was found near Peking’s Fox Tower. Although two detectives, one British and the other Chinese, spent months on the case, the case was never solved completely, and the case was forgotten in the wake of the invasion of the Japanese. Frustrated, Pamela’s father, a former diplomat, tried to solve the crime. His investigation took him into the underbelly of Peking society and uncovered a secret that was worse than anything he could have imagined.

At first, I thought that this would be a pretty straightforward retelling of a true crime, but what Paul French (who spent seven years researching the story) reveals in this book is much more than that. Foreign society in Peking in the 1930s was stratified, with the British colonials at the top and the White Russian refugees at the bottom, but somehow everyone was thrown together in a tightly knit group, unified by a fear of what was to come.

The story of the murder itself is incredibly absorbing; what exactly happened on the night of January 8, 1937 that led to a young woman’s murder and mutilation? Pamela Werner comes across an independent, intelligent young woman, and her father was relentless in tracking down her murderer—even though the British government tried to cover it up and the case was never officially solved. Too, Peking had much greater things to think about at the time than the murder of a young British girl. French solves the crime, but I think he uses his imagination a fair amount in describing how the murder played out. French’s technical writing isn’t particularly good, but he tells an interesting story. I especially loved the superstition surrounding the Fox Tower—fox spirits that represent a woman’s ability to seduce and betray. It’s an interesting parallel, but it wasn’t worked into the story very well.

Comments

Karen K. said…
I just checked this out from the library!! However, I don't know if I'll get to it before it's due and I think there are other holds.

I also recently read "People Who Eat Darkness" which is about a true crime in Tokyo, though it's set in the early 2000s. Horrifying yet fascinating.
Unknown said…
Your review is one of the few that notice how much material in the book is unsubstantiated, which is something that bothered me, so i got the original archives (werner's letters) which you can see here: www.pamelawernermurderpeking.com.
Take a look at "Sources", and "The case against Prentice", and "Official investigation" and compare it to French's "research".
I was pretty horrified.
Hope you don't mind me sharing?!
Feel free to tweet it, link to the site, if it is of interest to your readers!
Unknown said…
I found a good list of archives links at essaykings.me. You can have a look. It's a bit old (of 2010), but I know that the websites are cool.
Cheers
Ameen Khatri said…
I have to search sites with relevant information on given topic and provide them to teacher our opinion and the article. seo
Ameen Khatri said…
Great Information sharing .. I am very happy to read this article .. thanks for giving us go through info.Fantastic nice. I appreciate this post. Happy Ramadan Mubarak eCards 2018

Popular posts from this blog

Six Degrees of Barbara Pym's Novels

This year seems to be The Year of Barbara Pym; I know some of you out there are involved in some kind of a readalong in honor of the 100th year of her birth. I’ve read most of her canon, with only The Sweet Dove Died, Civil to Strangers, An Academic Question, and Crampton Hodnet left to go (sadly). Barbara Pym’s novels feature very similar casts of characters: spinsters, clergymen, retirees, clerks, and anthropologists, with which she had direct experience. So it stands to reason that there would be overlaps in characters between the novels. You can trace that though the publication history of her books and therefore see how Pym onionizes her stories and characters. She adds layers onto layers, adding more details as her books progress. Some Tame Gazelle (1950): Archdeacon Hoccleve makes his first appearance. Excellent Women (1952): Archdeacon Hoccleve gives a sermon that is almost incomprehensible to Mildred Lathbury; Everard Bone understands it, however, and laughs

Another giveaway

This time, the publicist at WW Norton sent me two copies of The Glass of Time , by Michael Cox--so I'm giving away the second copy. Cox is the author of The Meaning of Night, and this book is the follow-up to that. Leave a comment here to enter to win it! The deadline is next Sunday, 10/5/08.

A giveaway winner, and another giveaway

The winner of the Girl in a Blue Dress contest is... Anna, of Diary of An Eccentric ! My new contest is for a copy of The Shape of Mercy , by Susan Meissner. According to Publisher's Weekly : Meissner's newest novel is potentially life-changing, the kind of inspirational fiction that prompts readers to call up old friends, lost loves or fallen-away family members to tell them that all is forgiven and that life is too short for holding grudges. Achingly romantic, the novel features the legacy of Mercy Hayworth—a young woman convicted during the Salem witch trials—whose words reach out from the past to forever transform the lives of two present-day women. These book lovers—Abigail Boyles, elderly, bitter and frail, and Lauren Lars Durough, wealthy, earnest and young—become unlikely friends, drawn together over the untimely death of Mercy, whose precious diary is all that remains of her too short life. And what a diary! Mercy's words not only beguile but help Abigail and Lars