If you’ve read any of Qiu Xiaolong’s Inspector Chen novels before you may be taken aback by this – a slow burning rumination on the damage caused by both Maoist doctrine and the ruthless Party members dispatched to protect it that starkly contrasts with the literary thrillers he’s known for.

Chen infiltrates the bourgeois world of Jiao, the granddaughter of a B-movie actress who met a grim fate after becoming one of Mao’s lovers. Once a lowly office worker, Jiao has suddenly and suspiciously become wealthy after publishing a book about her ill-fated family. High-ranking party members wonder what else she’s hiding, and order Chen to find out before they take further, more brutal action. An unflinching tale of a modern capitalist China still bound by communist law, The Mao Case may be one of the bravest novels published this year.