Dead Weight

October 2, 2000
Western trends, Chinese traditions and millennial cults clash in this lively and topical Beijing police procedural, the fourth in West's series featuring Det. Wang Anzhuang and his wife, Rosina. Wang has more than enough to do enforcing the Party's new and frustrating policy of "no tolerance" for petty crime. Then Rosina's sister, Julie, disappears in tears from her Beijing flat and Rosina and Wang must track her down. Julie turns up in a rural commune run by the New Church of the Heavenly Kingdom, which worships Lord Ye Huo Huang (Jehovah) and Brother Ye Su (Jesus) and expects the return of a Chinese Messiah. Julie refuses to leave; the heroes give up and go home. Then the cult leader is poisoned, and Wang lands the case. Is Julie next in line for a sinister ritual? Wang and Rosina, plus his colorful array of officers and her network of informants, must race to save Julie and discover the strange truth about the leader's murder. West (Death of a Blue Lantern) constructs fine plots, and his sharp-edged style suits Wang's methods. Readers prize him most, however, for his troves of information about an exotic and rapidly changing nation, and they won't be disappointed here: from knockoff nightclub fashions to emigration, bureaucracy and new religions, Wang and Rosina's adventures provide a dazzling tour of contemporary Beijing life.