It's 1990 in Shanghai and a beautiful woman's body is found in a remote canal, murdered. Chief Inspector Chen and his assistant investigate while navigating party politics. The victim was a "model worker" and it appears she had a relationship with a higher-up in the party, possibly the killer, so Chen and his team have to proceed carefully or risk their own careers. It was interesting to read about life in communist China - the housing shortage where many people lived in dorms or miniscule apartments with shared bathrooms and cooking stoves in hallways, relied on public phones and staff who deliver messages to entire buildings, and the system where people are assigned jobs and careers (or had spent time in reeducation camps). The story takes place after the cultural revolution and Tiananmen Square massacre during a time of change. The book is also fascinating for its descriptions of food (including things like eels and snakes). Chen is a poet at heart and the book is interspersed with lines from classical Chinese verse. The book proceeds slowly but kept my interest throughout.