This atmospheric police procedural set in the murky underbelly of modern Shanghai (published more than a decade ago in Rotenberg’s native Canada) gets an Australian release this month. Detective Zhong Fong heads the Special Bureau responsible for difficult and violent crimes, including those involving foreigners. Fong is haunted by the heinous murder of his pregnant wife – a murder he is quietly suspected of in some quarters. His life isn’t made any easier by the sliced-up body of a New Orleans police officer found in a back alley. Fong receives two visitors who will turn his life upside down – his wife’s former lover (who hates him) and the slain American’s widow, who despised her husband, yet must know why he was killed. When another foreigner is murdered under similar circumstances, and when the suspicions of his involvement in his wife’s death turn into calls for his blood, he is truly cornered. Taut, elegant and menacing – I defy you to put this down before you finish!