Canadian Rotenberg's second Detective Zhong novel (after 1998's The Shanghai Murders), with its exotic setting (rural China) and bizarre crime (the murder of a boatload of foreigners), certainly intrigues. Unfortunately, the story reads like a condensed version of a more developed book, failing to convey much sense of place or to give its characters enough room to move about for the reader to get to know them. The pity is that Rotenberg's characters are genuinely interesting, in particular his Chinese equivalent of hillbillies. Det. Zhong Fong, formerly head of Special Investigations in Shanghai, has been condemned as a traitor. First, he was imprisoned, then exiled to a remote village in the north. After two years, two mysterious men rudely throw him into the trunk of a car and drive south. The authorities have a special assignment for Zhong that no one else wants. A pleasure boat that has been burned is frozen in the ice of Lake Ching. Its cargo includes 17 corpses of different nationalities (two American) killed in a variety of gory ways. Who were these people? What were they doing on the lake? And who would hate them enough to kill them in such horrible fashion? From there, the characters multiply like rabbits, while the harrowing plot gets as twisty as a Rubik's Cube. Other mysteries about China, both ancient and modern, may do a better job of exploring the people and culture, but as sheer entertainment this fills the bill. (Mar. 18)
