by Catherine Sampson
Macmillan, HK$255
Anyone who fancies dipping into the ranks of Asia's literary sleuths is certainly not short of choice. There's Colin Cotterill's gentle, thoughtful Laotian coroner, Dr Siri Paiboon, the hardnosed, Bangkok-based policeman Sonchai Jitpleecheep, created by John Burdett; and of course, that most holistic of detectives, C.F. Wong, conjured by Hong Kong's Nury Vittachi.
Chinese private investigator Song Ren is a more recent arrival and makes his second appearance in Catherine Sampson's The Slaughter Pavilion, which follows The Pool of Unease.
The story volleys back and forth between Beijing and the mainland countryside, with occasional - almost surreal - interludes in London, starting with a startling suicide from the top of a skyscraper in the Chinese capital, which Song vainly attempts to frustrate.
A police officer turned private investigator, Song is inexorably drawn into a web of murky events as he attempts to discover the truth. From the hutongs where his office is about to be demolished by developers to rural coal mines run with a blatant disregard for safety, the action takes place against a backdrop of social decay and moral ambivalence.
Song's moribund former father-in-law is up to his neck in corrupt deals, while his ex-wife Lina is in a relationship with Song's nemesis, the eerily named Psycho Wang.