THE UNTOUCHED CRIME, what's a Chinese mystery novel like?

THE UNTOUCHED CRIME
ZIJIN CHEN (tr. Michelle Deeter)
AmazonCrossing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$3.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: For three years, a serial killer has walked among the citizens of Hangzhou, China. With each new body come the same a jump rope, a cigarette, and a slip of paper that says, “Come and get me.”

In the same city, Luo Wen wanders into a park just as a young woman stabs a local thug to death in a desperate act of self-defense. A former criminal investigator who lost his own family in an unsolved case, Luo Wen is familiar with the slippery nature of justice. So he makes the split-second decision to help the terrified woman cover up her crime, leaving behind no trace of evidence.

Luo Wen’s friend Yan Liang, a criminologist and professor known for solving each case like a mathematical equation, is called in to help the police on the recent homicides. As he digs deeper, he discovers more questions than answers―and variables that simply don’t add up. While Yan Liang follows his suspicion and Luo Wen covers his tracks, a battle of wits plays out―with the winner’s version of justice as the ultimate prize.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Not really any great shakes in the whodunit genre, more a howsolvedit...the solution to the mystery is uncovered in bits by Luo Wen and Yan Liang; honestly, why did they choose this case to invest in isn't clear to me. There are other cases as urgent...but it's not really a fruitful speculation. It's also interestung that these two are pretty critical of their lazier colleagues. Cutting corners seems offensive to these quixotic crime-solvers. Wuxia deeply influenced this story.

I'm really interested in other cultures' attitudes to crime fiction. US crime writing is pretty solidly copaganda; I'm wondering if other country's crime solvers are the same. These two, well, they're motivated by ma'at but also seem not to have institutional investment. They're really influenced by the Rightness of crime solving. It's deeply refreshing.

I'm not hugely excited by the prose; it does its job, but it's not very energetic. I'm not that interested in superintelligent cat-and-mouse battles of wits. I've seen and read the Sherlock Holmes œuvre. Do something unusual with it and I'll get more intrigued.

So that's why we're at a quarter-star less than four. I'm not trying to be discouraging, I am not a bit sorry I read the story. I'm not going to shove it at you but I definitely think its ebook is very good value for money spent.

THE BOY BETWEEN WORLDS, the cruelty is the point

THE BOY BETWEEN WORLDS
ANNEJET van der ZIJL (tr. Kristen Gehrman)
Amazon Crossing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$4.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: This is the emotionally stirring story of unlikely lovers who brave the bigotry of their era, only to be victims of the even larger forces of history at work in World War II.

The plight of Anna (a lively and charismatic woman) and her much younger second husband Waldemar (an immigrant from the Dutch colony of Suriname), and the fate of their only child, Waldy, after his parents are murdered in the Nazi concentration camp for the crime of harboring Jews in their boarding house is unforgettable.

Waldemar is unique as a biracial young man in post WWII Netherlands—and his search for his own path in life is sure to engage even the hardest hearts.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: A story that requires some investment of effort to acquire the specific time and place's attitudes to mostly understand the action. I's all here...you're not doing research. But for about 30ish percent of the read you're not being told the story of a boy, his parents, and how the forces of the outside world break in and break up a family.

World War II...care to guess who the villains are? You guessed it: the neighbors! Nazis are the means to the end of punishing people you hate because you feel like it. This is a read that twangs every string in your heart, that personalizes every childish sob, that removes the veil of routine from every cruel "rule" or "order" or "law" that was designed to hurt ordinary people living their lives because you either like that or do not care enough to oppose it.

It's a cheap read. Gift its drama and its deeply emotional true story to someone who needs it more than I'm sure you don't.