A review by lindsayb
A Calamitous Chinese Killing by Shamini Flint

4.0

I always loved the covers on these books but not being a mystery fan, I figured I'd never get around to reading them...until this past week when I got myself into a situation for class and ended picking this one up at the last minute. Could Shamini Flint turn me into a mystery reader? The jury's still out on that, but I will definitely be sure to read the other books in this series. I loved Inspector Singh's role as "the corpulent copper," who loves his curries, cold beer, and cigarettes (clearly more culturally a Sikh than religiously) nearly as much as he loves solving a tricky murder. I loved the sense of place Flint created here--the setting was so well-constructed, I was totally immersed, wandering through the streets, markets, and restaurants of Beijing as well. I loved the peculiarities of all the characters, with even the bad guys being so bad they were delightful. And even though grisly murders pepper the novel, it sustains a quaint level of humor throughout that it's just totally charming. My only regret is that, per the parameters of my RA class, I started with the latest installment in the series, not that it really seems to matter necessarily the order they're read, but it does bristle my OCD tendencies to read an author/series chronologically. Ah well, I'll be happily starting at square one with Singh and enjoy the ride.

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Serendipitously counting for my "takes place in Asia" criteria for the Read Harder challenge.