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Murder in the Red Chamber
Murder in the Red Chamber, first published in Japanese by Bungei Shunjū as part of its "Mystery Masters" series, is set in the world of the original Dream of the Red Chamber, the masterwork of eighteenth-century Chinese fiction by Cao Xueqin. Building skillfully on that famous background, Ashibe plays out a most formidable murder mystery set in Peking during the late Qing dynasty. The tale opens with the visitation of Jia Yuan-chun, esteemed daughter of the prosperous Jia family and newly instated concubine to the emperor.
In preparation for her arrival, the Jias have constructed a magnificent homage in land known as Prospect Garden. After an all too brief celebration, as a parting gift to her beloved family Yuan-chun decrees that her sisters and closest female cousins relocate from their homes to the Garden proper, along with her brother Bao-yu.
Little do they know what horrors await them.
During an evening gathering, one of the young maidens of the Garden is brutally murdered in plain sight. This spectacle sets off a series of mysterious deaths. Lai Shang-rong, a local magistrate and Chief Inspector in service to the Jias, is specially commissioned to investigate the goings on and get to the root of the evil that has darkened this otherwise idyllic setting.
Bao-yu, however, has designs of his own. As the only male inhabitant of Prospect Garden, and with the pressure of success breathing down his neck as the next in line to the Jia throne, Bao-yu feels obliged to protect those dearest to him and decides to launch a private investigation. Bao-yu's methods confuse Shang-rong, who is certain that a more orthodox approach will flush out the killer in due course. As luck would have it, Bao-yu is soon assigned as an assistant to Shang-rong, who is content to work alone. In spite of the inconvenience, Shang-rong knows that Bao-yu's status as an insider might prove helpful.
Yet as time goes on and more murders are committed right under his nose, Shang-rong begins to suspect that Bao-yu may in fact be behind them all. Shang-rong is expected to cooperate with Bao-yu all the same, and so he must face a difficult choice: point the finger at his exalted sidekick, or crack the case before imminent dangers destroy him.
Ashibe's tragic conclusion leaves us with a heavy moral question while presenting even the most seasoned mystery fan with a refreshing and innovative take on the detective novel formula.
In preparation for her arrival, the Jias have constructed a magnificent homage in land known as Prospect Garden. After an all too brief celebration, as a parting gift to her beloved family Yuan-chun decrees that her sisters and closest female cousins relocate from their homes to the Garden proper, along with her brother Bao-yu.
Little do they know what horrors await them.
During an evening gathering, one of the young maidens of the Garden is brutally murdered in plain sight. This spectacle sets off a series of mysterious deaths. Lai Shang-rong, a local magistrate and Chief Inspector in service to the Jias, is specially commissioned to investigate the goings on and get to the root of the evil that has darkened this otherwise idyllic setting.
Bao-yu, however, has designs of his own. As the only male inhabitant of Prospect Garden, and with the pressure of success breathing down his neck as the next in line to the Jia throne, Bao-yu feels obliged to protect those dearest to him and decides to launch a private investigation. Bao-yu's methods confuse Shang-rong, who is certain that a more orthodox approach will flush out the killer in due course. As luck would have it, Bao-yu is soon assigned as an assistant to Shang-rong, who is content to work alone. In spite of the inconvenience, Shang-rong knows that Bao-yu's status as an insider might prove helpful.
Yet as time goes on and more murders are committed right under his nose, Shang-rong begins to suspect that Bao-yu may in fact be behind them all. Shang-rong is expected to cooperate with Bao-yu all the same, and so he must face a difficult choice: point the finger at his exalted sidekick, or crack the case before imminent dangers destroy him.
Ashibe's tragic conclusion leaves us with a heavy moral question while presenting even the most seasoned mystery fan with a refreshing and innovative take on the detective novel formula.
268 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2004
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299 people want to read
About the author
Taku Ashibe
64 books9 followersTaku is a Japanese mystery writer. He is a member of the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan and one of the representative writers of the new traditionalist movement in Japanese mystery writing.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 27, 2019
This was a tough book to review. It is an English translation of a Japanese novel about Chinese nobility. While billed as a detective novel, it reads more like a historical fiction.
Most of the novel is about the glory and demise of a noble family during the Qing dynasty, a family with direct connection to the imperial court. After a very long prelude, the reader is introduced to a series of murders that occur in the vast mansion grounds of this family, and the attempt by a lame detective to solve these crimes. The reader is presented with very little clues or actual detective work. After a brief overview of every murder, the reader is overwhelmed with pages upon pages of a boring and elaborate presentation of the family and its many characters; how they live, their dress, the mansion, their maids, how they talk, what they do, etc. There is nothing grand about this novel. It is quite boring.
Aside from a misleading title, I found two issues to be particularly annoying; the emotionless response of the characters to the murders (of their supposedly loved ones), and the apparent lack of any sense of time progression. There is no link between ensuing chapters, and you could never guess how many hours or days have passed between the events of a previous chapter (or sometimes paragraph) to the next. You could find the detective talking to someone, and then suddenly you would find him attending an event somewhere else at some other time. I am wondering if these shortcomings were intended by the author in the original Japanese version or simply a poor translation work.
Most of the novel is about the glory and demise of a noble family during the Qing dynasty, a family with direct connection to the imperial court. After a very long prelude, the reader is introduced to a series of murders that occur in the vast mansion grounds of this family, and the attempt by a lame detective to solve these crimes. The reader is presented with very little clues or actual detective work. After a brief overview of every murder, the reader is overwhelmed with pages upon pages of a boring and elaborate presentation of the family and its many characters; how they live, their dress, the mansion, their maids, how they talk, what they do, etc. There is nothing grand about this novel. It is quite boring.
Aside from a misleading title, I found two issues to be particularly annoying; the emotionless response of the characters to the murders (of their supposedly loved ones), and the apparent lack of any sense of time progression. There is no link between ensuing chapters, and you could never guess how many hours or days have passed between the events of a previous chapter (or sometimes paragraph) to the next. You could find the detective talking to someone, and then suddenly you would find him attending an event somewhere else at some other time. I am wondering if these shortcomings were intended by the author in the original Japanese version or simply a poor translation work.
May 19, 2015
It's rare for a novel translated into English to have the translator's name on the sleeve, and even rarer when it's a work of popular fiction translated by an emerging translator. (Side note: Goodreads needs to lift their game. Can I get a librarian to add Tyran Grillo's name as the translator of this book?)
A complex and beautiful work of detective fiction, which Tyran Grillo's translation brings to us despite the original Dream of the Red Chamber being distant from most English readers. The translator's skillful mix of Chinese and English cliches in the opening chapters foreshadow the way in which the author references and subverts the conventions of Eastern and Western detective fiction in the later chapters, as the bodies pile up and the killer is finally revealed. There are sniffs of Edogawa Rampo, who of course wore his influences on his sleeve, as well as references to the classic and sometimes-supernatural tradition of detective fiction in China.
Kurodahan Press does a good job of publishing genre fiction translated from Japanese, and I'd love to see them put out more crime fiction (I know I've said that before), particularly works as original and richly detailed as this.
A complex and beautiful work of detective fiction, which Tyran Grillo's translation brings to us despite the original Dream of the Red Chamber being distant from most English readers. The translator's skillful mix of Chinese and English cliches in the opening chapters foreshadow the way in which the author references and subverts the conventions of Eastern and Western detective fiction in the later chapters, as the bodies pile up and the killer is finally revealed. There are sniffs of Edogawa Rampo, who of course wore his influences on his sleeve, as well as references to the classic and sometimes-supernatural tradition of detective fiction in China.
Kurodahan Press does a good job of publishing genre fiction translated from Japanese, and I'd love to see them put out more crime fiction (I know I've said that before), particularly works as original and richly detailed as this.
March 20, 2017
Short review.
Misterinya cukup menarik. Kita disuguhi pembunuhan berantai yang dibumbui unsur impossible circumstances. Pembunuh yang menghilang tanpa jejak. Mayat yang tiba-tiba muncul di tempat terbuka. Dan tentunya pembunuhan ruang tertutup. Sebenarnya masih ada beberapa kejadian tidak mungkin lainnya, bagi yang penasaran silakan baca bukunya. Hehe
Meskipun banyak dibumbui oleh misteri ruang tertutup dan impossible circumstances, penjelasan how untuk aspek itu justru menjadi bagian paling lemah dari novel ini. Bagi saya yang paling menarik adalah penjelasan why dari kejadian tidak mungkin tersebut.
Mengapa ada yang repot2 menggunakan trik untuk mewujudkan kejadian2 aneh itu? Ashibe Taku memberikan penjelasan yang seolah-olah mendekonstruksi trope dalam genre detektif, terutama dalam hal penggunaan trik untuk mengaburkan pembunuhan. Penggemar berat novel misteri/detektif pasti akan sangat menyukai bagian penjelasan di atas.
Murder in the Red Chamber adalah novel unik yang menawarkan misteri ruang tertutup, namun punya hidangan rahasia yang ternyata adalah menu utamanya. 4 Stars!
Misterinya cukup menarik. Kita disuguhi pembunuhan berantai yang dibumbui unsur impossible circumstances. Pembunuh yang menghilang tanpa jejak. Mayat yang tiba-tiba muncul di tempat terbuka. Dan tentunya pembunuhan ruang tertutup. Sebenarnya masih ada beberapa kejadian tidak mungkin lainnya, bagi yang penasaran silakan baca bukunya. Hehe
Meskipun banyak dibumbui oleh misteri ruang tertutup dan impossible circumstances, penjelasan how untuk aspek itu justru menjadi bagian paling lemah dari novel ini. Bagi saya yang paling menarik adalah penjelasan why dari kejadian tidak mungkin tersebut.
Mengapa ada yang repot2 menggunakan trik untuk mewujudkan kejadian2 aneh itu? Ashibe Taku memberikan penjelasan yang seolah-olah mendekonstruksi trope dalam genre detektif, terutama dalam hal penggunaan trik untuk mengaburkan pembunuhan. Penggemar berat novel misteri/detektif pasti akan sangat menyukai bagian penjelasan di atas.
Murder in the Red Chamber adalah novel unik yang menawarkan misteri ruang tertutup, namun punya hidangan rahasia yang ternyata adalah menu utamanya. 4 Stars!
November 23, 2013
I think Ashibe-san was quite successful in presenting a murder story in Chinese bygone era with western style detective work. A very sad story though.
Want to read
April 7, 2019Synopsis: Jia Yuan-Chun, newly installed concubine to the emperor, encounters horrors on her journey to the capital.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews