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Matthew Legare - Thriller Author

Website for Matthew Legare, writer of historical, thriller, and noir novels, including the Reiko Watanabe/Inspector Aizawa series set in 1930s Japan.

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Death in Shanghai Review & MJ Lee Interview

August 22, 2019 by Matthew Legare Leave a Comment

Death in Shanghai by MJ LeeShanghai 1928 – the body of blonde woman is found dead, washed up on the “Beach of Dead Babies.” The mutilated corpse is marked with the Chinese character for “justice.” It’s with this gruesome and foreboding atmosphere that Death in Shanghai by MJ Lee, and the Inspector Danilov series begins.

Although this is the first book, it’s the third I’ve read, following The Murder Game and The Killing Time. Inspector Danilov, a grizzled veteran of the Police Department in Minsk, is assigned to the case. He’s ordered to take on Strachan – a half-Chinese, half-Scottish rookie – as his new partner. While I’m familiar with their relationship from the other book – Strachan wide-eyed and eager, Danilov, sarcastic and cynical – but was a bit taken aback by his coldness. Here, he always has a sarcastic or dry retort to Strachan’s musings.

The mystery deepens when more bodies pile up – a bureaucrat in the French Concession turns up dead. A Russian prostitute is drowned in pig’s blood. A preacher is hacked limb from limb. All of these victims have a Chinese character carved into their flesh, specifying their alleged “sin” for which they were punished for. Like most serial murderers, the villain is given a catchy nickname – “The Character Killer.”

We don’t find out the Character Killer’s identity toward the end, and even then he’s wearing a hood like a glorious pulp villain. He believes he is a servant of Yama, the god of death. A religious zealot, he’s cleaning Shanghai, the modern Gomorrah of Asia, of its sinners in fitting punishments. Plenty of suspects are thrown in the reader’s direction, but most are obvious red herrings. That being said, I was actually surprised when the killer was revealed.

The novel has good pacing and characterization. Danilov is the perpetual lonely Russian, indulging in opium to stave off bad memories of the family he lost back in Minsk. He’s widely disliked within the Shanghai Municipal Police, in charge of the International Settlement and run by British professionals from the Met. No real personal reasons are given, so we assume it’s due to British prejudice against Russians. In Interwar Shanghai, Russians were often seen as beneath the other white Shanghailanders, being mostly stateless refugees fleeing the USSR.

There are enough twists and turns to keep the reader enthralled – particularly one brutally long chase with some Chinese thugs. Shanghai in of its decadent glory is there, but it’s subdued and mostly stays in the background. It’s a good thriller/mystery and a decent start to the series. If you like your mysteries wrapped in the mystique of 1920s Shanghai, along with pulpy villains, and gore-splattered corpses, check this one out.

MJ Lee Interview

 

1) This is the first of four Inspector Danilov books. Did you always intend it to be a series?

Yes. From the start, I’ve planned this as a series, even to knowing the date and place Danilov dies. Obviously it comes from doing a lot of research into the period and trying to marry Danilov with the social, political and economic changes in Shanghai during the period. Of course, one mustn’t forget these are crime stories so some sort of criminal event must be at the heart of everything, but Shanghai itself is a character in all the stories.

2) Was there anything from earlier drafts that you cut, only to use them in later Danilov books?

Great question! I cut a lot of the backstory of how Danilov arrived in Shanghai. It was great in terms of explaining his life and his desire to re-unite with his family, but it hampered the pace of the story. Better to feed it in over several books rather than dump it all in at the beginning of the first. Most of the material was used in subsequent books so nothing ever goes to waste.

 

3) Early on in the novel, there is some conflict between the Shanghai Municipal Police and Le Garde Municipale, but they agree to assist each other. How often did this happen? Was cooperation rare between the two organizations?

The truth is there wasn’t much, unless it suited both organisations! They tended to operate separately; the French and the British seeing themselves as reporting to two different imperial powers and having two very different modes of behaviour. They did co-operate when it suited them, particularly during the anti-communist actions of 1927 and subsequent years. Criminals tended to live in the French Concession (like Big-Ears Tu) and operate in both. Simply because the French Concession was were the social, night and cultural life happened.

 

4) You mentioned that Danilov is rather apolitical. Is this why there isn’t much in the way of Chinese politics in the novel?

Danilov has had enough of politics. He was a loyal servant of the Tsar who supported the Mensheviks when they came to power, and the Communists when they took over in 1917. In essence, he was a civil servant who gave his loyalty to the Russian State, no matter who was in power. His loyalty was to the truth and to punishing those who harmed the weakest in society. However, this naivety was exposed later when the Communists instituted a pogrom against ‘class enemies’ in Minsk. As the son of an ex-Vice Governor, Danilov was a target despite being loyal to whichever government sat in the Kremlin. By the time he reaches Shanghai, he knows exactly what he wants to do; solve crimes. The petty politics of the Shanghai police and Council don’t interest him. However, in subsequent books, he realises that nobody is unaffected by political events happening around them. I won’t go into his death here, but it comes because he no longer ignores politics. Now there’s a teaser if ever there was one….

 

5) Was Death in Shanghai an easy sell to the publisher?

Yes. I didn’t really sell it. I submitted to three publishers and HQ, a division of Harper Collins, asked for it. I sent it off and waited, and waited, and waited. Eventually Clio Cornish, one of the editors, replied saying they wanted to publish it. Apparently, within a company, editors have to get support for their choices from their bosses. Not surprising really. Clio was a great editor who really helped me hone Danilov’s story, making it tight and meaningful.

 

6) Who is your favorite character and why?

Probably Strachan. He’s such a divided character. An intelligent man looking for his way in life. He became a cop to honour his dead father, an ex-cop, but loves the life and the focus it gives him. In many ways he unites the Chinese and the European elements of Shanghai, having both cultures as a part of his background. However, he is an outsider, like Danilov, and is thus able to judge and investigate both sides. Danilov is very much a substitute father figure for him but, as we will find out in subsequent books, like any son he rebels against the constraints of a dominating parent.

 

7) The villain of the story – the Character Killer – seems straight out of the pulps, and gloriously so. Was there any real-life inspiration for him?

He’s very much out of the pulps. Shanghai in this period was a larger than life city and I wanted a killer that was just as outrageous. There’s no real inspiration for him, other than a lot of research on the period. if one reads about real-life serial killers, a term only invented in 1930 by the way, they are much worse than anything written by an author. A true sociopath/psychopath has absolutely zero empathy for any of his victims.

 

8) What are you working on currently?

Currently, I’m working on a contemporary series set in Manchester, Uk, featuring a detective in the Major Incident Unit called Thomas Ridpath. The third book involves him investigating two deaths by burning where the victims are not linked at all….yet. I love writing these books as it involves researching all the modern tools that weren’t available to Danilov; CCTV, forensic science, luminol, digital investigations and, of course, DNA. Danilov was at the beginning, and in many ways, pre-empts forensic science. Nowadays, an investigation into a murder is far, far, more complicated.

 

US readers can purchase Death in Shanghai here.
UK readers can purchase Death in Shanghai here.
CA readers can purchase it here.
And AU readers can click here to purchase it.

 

Tagged With: Author Interviews, China, historical fiction, MJ Lee, Shanghai, Thrillers

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