Chinese Whispers (China Thrillers Series #6)

Publishers Weekly

May's fine sixth entry in his contemporary China series (The Firemaker, etc.) offers some fresh variations on the catch-the-serial-killer within an autocratic society plot. A fiend is copying Jack the Ripper's m.o. almost exactly—savagely butchering prostitutes, sending body parts in the mail and boasting of his atrocities in letters. The authorities' efforts to keep the pattern from the public are shattered when Lynn Pan, a Chinese-American, falls victim to the Beijing Ripper. Pan had just shown a new law enforcement tool to Beijing CID section chief Li Yan and his superiors, a brain scan that would make traditional lie detectors obsolete. Li suspects Pan discovered something during the demonstration that led to her murder. As Li pursues that theory, an unknown enemy in a position of power threatens his career and his family. May nicely handles the business of using mental fingerprints to identify the criminal. (Oct.)

Library Journal

Young women working the streets of Beijing are being brutally murdered, and Li Yan, the head of Beijing's serious crime squad, must stop the killer. When the next victim is an American, the U.S. Embassy demands that the autopsy be done by an American pathologist, and Margaret Campbell, who is living with Li Yan and their baby daughter, is drawn back into her work. Unfortunately, she also attracts the attention of the Beijing Ripper, who is always two steps ahead of Li Yan's team. VERDICT Employing a tightly woven plot and detailing interpersonal relationships that reveal more of his protagonists' background, May, the only Western member of the Chinese Crime Writers' Association, has outdone himself in this sixth entry (after Snakehead) in his China series. This is sure to please readers who like watching their heroes face life-threatening situations in far-off locales. Recommended also for fans of Qiu Xiaolong's Inspector Chen series. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 6/1/09.]

Kirkus Reviews

A Jack the Ripper wannabe stalks Beijing. Li Yan, head of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Beijing Municipal Police, is appalled when four prostitutes are murdered in a manner exactly replicating that of the Ripper 120 years ago. The mastermind even sends him precisely worded taunts indicating his next venture. Then Lynn Pann, the professor running a supposedly foolproof lie-detection technique called the Mermer program, is murdered in a manner indicating even more similarities to the Ripper's work. Is a copycat killer on the loose, or is the perp one of the volunteer subjects Pann examined with Mermer? Further complicating matters, Li's questioning of several subjects, all higher-ups in the Beijing political hierarchy, has explosive results. His American lover Margaret's attempt to renew her visa is denied. Their son is abducted. Li's sister is jailed on charges of cocaine trafficking. Li himself is ousted from his position in the Municipal Police. Equally troubling, a polygraph expert trying to decipher Pann's notes takes a header out his apartment window. Working unofficially, Li concentrates on inconsistencies revealed by Mermer in order to zero in on the most likely suspects. Margaret will be seriously endangered before a final knife thrust ends the search. The repeat tour of the Ripper's dissections is just plain grisly. But the interesting locale and May's ongoing study of the difficulties in conducting Chinese-American romances (The Runner, 2003, etc.) are likely to interest a broader range of readers.