The Railway Conspiracy

Coauthors Rozan and Nee bring back Judge Dee Ren Jie in this follow-up to The Murder of Mr. Ma, set in 1920s London. Once again, Dee enlists his Watson-like sidekick Lao She and numerous friends to investigate a political conspiracy involving China, Imperial Russia, and Japan. After being abroad for several months, Dee returns to London just in time to prevent the sale of a stolen Chinese mace to a Japanese mercenary. The mace’s owner, a Chinese businesswoman, thanks Dee by throwing a dinner party, at which a British banking official argues with the group about Chinese nationalism. Two days later, he is poisoned. Soon after, two more men are murdered, and a note with a strange symbol is found nearby. An attempted mass poisoning and a bombing at a well-attended Chinese festival have Dee and his friends desperate to find the culprit. Dee must set a risky trap in order to determine whom he can trust and who is ready to betray him.