The Murder of Mr. Ma
One of the most unusual collaborations of today’s mystery genre created The Murder of Mr. Ma, as John Shen Yen Nee has led at DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and S. J. Rozan’s Lydia Chin series (mostly New York and Chinatown) began in 1994. This pair plunge readers into 1924 London and an astonishing resuscitation of the noted Judge Dee Ren Jie. He was a semi-fictional character originally based on a Tang court statesman, brought into a Chinese crime novel in the 18th century, then the hero of Robert van Gulik’s historical mysteries. Nee and Rozan re-create him once again, investigating a murder of Mr. Ma, for the sake of an old friendship.
The charming point of view is that of an inexperienced and reserved academic, Lao She, whose studies get entirely disrupted by the demands of Judge Dee Ren Jie: The noted and notorious Bertrand Russell recruits Lao She to assist, as “Dee Ren Jie has found himself mistakenly swept up in the arrest of a group of Chinese agitators in the Limehouse.” When the astonished Lao She agrees to Russell’s plot, he throws into jeopardy his carefully cultivated relationship with his domineering British landlady and the landlady’s lovely daughter. In return, he gets the adventure of a lifetime, even seeing “Flying Tiger” style martial arts. Then again, Lao She is a former laudanum user—so can he escape becoming addicted when his responsibility for rescuing the careless judge takes him into an opium den?
From rooftops to back alleys, the book offers insights into British class at the time, postwar changes in culture, and anti-Chinese sentiment and maneuvers, seasoned with lively adventures and abundant humor.
