Death in Shanghai

​If you are into crime fiction set in exotic locations and with grotesque serial killer scenarios, then this book should appeal to you.
 
At the beginning - and for much of the story - I really liked Inspector Danilov, the Russian who is out of place among the British boors or racist snobs of the Shanghai Police Dept. His anguish over his family who have been lost somewhere in the chaos of Revolutionary Russia and its Civil War aftermath feels genuine and is historically accurate. His relationship with his off-sider, the half Scots-half Chinese Strachan, provides some of the best moments.
 
But I have to admit after some increasingly gruesome and graphic murders by the time we arrived at the final showdown with the revelation of whodunit, I actually couldn’t remember who the culprit was to begin with and mixed him up with another individual - which is utterly disgraceful on my part and shows that I certainly fell off the rails somewhere along the journey or just didn’t pay close enough attention to who’s who, even though I had already figured out the major clue.
 
There are just too many echoes here of numerous novels or TV dramas about serial killers and their twisted motivations to make it unique. I accept I’m in the minority in finding many action scenes - in both books and films -a chore and I often flick through or fast-forward them. And as for those interminable fight scenes in which a man has been stunned, shot or stabbed several times over and yet rises up to fight yet again when any real human being would be well beyond dead after the first blow (unless it happens to be Rasputin) these are seldom convincing. There is rather too much of this towards the end of the book and unfortunately the epilogue foreshadows a continuation of same and on which I’m going to have to pass in spite of my affection for Danilov.

With more "noir" or more subtle suspense this had the potential to score higher. Still, a solid 3 1/2 stars for Danilov and the late 1920s Shanghai setting.

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

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