{"id":4018,"date":"2021-04-26T09:35:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T16:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4018"},"modified":"2021-04-26T09:35:31","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T16:35:31","slug":"brian-klingborg-thief-of-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/brian-klingborg-thief-of-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Klingborg: Thief of Souls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is a really solid start to a new series, one that reminded me of Stuart Kaminsky\u2019s classic Inspector Rostnikov series.\u00a0 This new series is set in China, rather than Russia, but many of the societal and economic restrictions are similar.\u00a0 Klingborg\u2019s Inspector Lu Fei is as bemused and practical a thinker as Rostnikov.\u00a0 Lu Fei lives near Harbin, in northern China, but not in Harbin itself – he basically lives out in the sticks.\u00a0 He prefers the steadiness of country policing and doesn\u2019t have a huge desire to move up the ranks.<\/p>\n

Each chapter is bracketed by quotes from Mao Zedong, framing the basics of the way Communist China has been set up, and the reasons behind it.\u00a0 Of course Mao is gone, but some of the precepts and tenants seem embedded in the culture.\u00a0 As the book opens, a young woman has been discovered dead by the neighbors.\u00a0 They had been alerted by the non-stop barking of her dog.<\/p>\n

As the Inspector arrives at the scene with his team \u2013 his second is Sgt. Bing, and then there\u2019s \u201cFatty Wang\u201d and \u201cBig Wang\u201d as well as an efficient female officer, Sun, and the skinny, quiet \u201cLi the Mute.\u201d\u00a0 There is probably plenty moving forward that Klingborg can do with all of these characters \u2013 in this first novel, they aren\u2019t that fleshed out, but they do set the scene for the investigation nicely.<\/p>\n

As Lu examines the scene and it appears they\u2019ll need more forensics help than their back water can provide, they send for the experts.\u00a0 (I think in the US it\u2019s probably the equivalent of calling in the FBI.)\u00a0 The experts quickly discover the woman\u2019s body has been cut open, and on further examination, that several of her organs have been removed.<\/p>\n

Lu works with the higher up officer, Song, to investigate the case.\u00a0 While they arrest a neighbor for the murder fairly quickly, Lu is sure that he\u2019s not guilty.\u00a0 While Song disagrees, Lu keeps doggedly working the case to prove the man\u2019s innocence, and eventually finds two other very similar deaths to the one they are investigating.<\/p>\n

Klingborg\u2019s real strength here is in portraying Chinese culture and life as it\u2019s lived by ordinary people.\u00a0 Lu\u2019s small town life is enlivened by visits to a local dive bar \u2013 snacks are served but people are there to drink and admire the young widow who owns it, including Lu.\u00a0 A portrait of his life – work, drinking, investigation, is incised on the reader\u2019s mind as though you\u2019re living it yourself.\u00a0 To a western eye, it might seem a spare life, but Inpector Lu seems both satisfied and to expect nothing more \u2013 except to marry for love at some point.<\/p>\n

The investigations both in the City of Harbin (where the dead girl had worked and kept an apartment before her mother became ill) illuminates different aspects of Chinese society and attitudes.\u00a0 A gay bar.\u00a0 A man who is a politically radical outlier.\u00a0 The families of the dead women.\u00a0 None of this is provided to the reader as a kind of tourist-y look at China \u2013 it\u2019s organic.\u00a0 Events and characters fold into one another naturally as the investigation unfolds.<\/p>\n

I love the character of Inspector Lu.\u00a0 I think he is both sturdy enough and interesting enough to provide a strong backbone for a long series.\u00a0 I liked the story, the character interaction, and even some of the parts of the story where Inspector Lu gets into a few fights.\u00a0 He\u2019s trained in the martial arts and he mostly gets the better of larger opponents (and it sets the reader\u2019s expectations, leaving Klingborg room for surprises).\u00a0 The author writes these kind of scenes well, not an easy feat to pull off.<\/p>\n

While the eventual murderer in an interesting yet inevitable choice, I didn\u2019t care for the end of the book as it devolved into a more routine serial killer wrap up.\u00a0 While I was delighted when the killer was caught, I felt it almost violated the tone of the rest of this well written, thoughtful book.\u00a0 And it certainly wouldn\u2019t prevent me from reading other books in this series.\u00a0 As I said, I loved Inspector Lu, and would be delighted to spend more time with him.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a really solid start to a new series, one that reminded me of Stuart Kaminsky\u2019s classic Inspector Rostnikov series.\u00a0 This new series is set in China, rather than Russia, but many of the societal and economic restrictions are similar.\u00a0 Klingborg\u2019s Inspector Lu Fei is as bemused and practical a thinker as Rostnikov.\u00a0 Lu … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[558,561,560,100,559],"class_list":["post-4018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-brian-klingborg","tag-china","tag-inspector-lu-fei","tag-minotaur-books","tag-thief-of-souls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4020,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4018\/revisions\/4020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}