This book was very slow, straight forward and unfolded the story in detail. There were no twists, nothing crazy. A realistic story. I liked the language used and the inclusion of poems. One thing that I did not like was how almost every single woman was described based on her 'attractive' physical features. For example, long legs or peachy lips. The women were described for the male gaze.
Overall, it was a slow, simple book.

This is the first novel to a series of books following Inspector Chen. I enjoyed how this novel brought me to 1990’s China, particularly in Shanghai and learning about how communism played a role in everyone’s day to day. Seeing the class structure and who received what based on their job title or family status was intriguing.

Spoiler Warning: Details on the man antagonist & end of book content.

Despite knowing who murdered Guan Hongying for the majority of the novel, it was nice to be able to pinpoint why it took so long for justice to play its part. There were some portions of the novel, like Inspector Chen traveling to Hong Kong, that were a bit confusing. This was a slow burn of a read, and I feel that the story would have been delivered better had there not been certain scenes. I was not expecting graphic details of sex during the last portion of the novel as it came out of the blue and it was with a character that did not get much depth developed in it.