Matthew Legare - Historical, Thrillers, & Noir
Website for Matthew Legare, writer of historical, thriller, and noir novels, including the Reiko Watanabe/Inspector Aizawa series set in 1930s Japan.
Opium dens, seedy bars, and exotic jungles – all tropes associated with pulp fiction, specifically the yellow peril subgenre, which writer Richard Jaccoma uses in his appropriately named 1978 novel, Yellow Peril – The Adventures of Sir John Weymouth-Smythe.
[Read more…] about Yellow Peril By Richard Jaccoma Novel Review
In 1928 Shanghai, a Chinese family named the Lees is brutally murdered while a disabled girl watches in horror, before falling victim herself. It’s up to Inspector Danilov and his sidekick Strachan to unravel this bizarre mystery. [Read more…] about City of Shadows Review & MJ Lee Interview
Red Phoenix is the second in the Thomas Caine series by Andrew Warren, filled with international espionage, intrigue, and some stunning action sequences.
[Read more…] about Red Phoenix Review & Andrew Warren Interview
1930s Shanghai has long captivated people for its lurid underworld, usually presented in the form of the notorious Green Gang. However, there was a brief period in Old Shanghai where a new batch of gangsters rose to prominence, and their story is told in Paul French’s City of Devils.
[Read more…] about City of Devils Review & Paul French Interview
[Read more…] about The Jade Dragon Review & Garrett Hutson Interview
Shanghai 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.
[Read more…] about Death in Shanghai Review & MJ Lee Interview
Shanghai Story by the great Alexa Kang is a historical epic in the vein of such classics as The 
Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Whereas those books concentrated on the well-represented European Theater of World War II, Kang’s trilogy will focus on the lesser-known Sino-Japanese War.
[Read more…] about Shanghai Story Review & Alexa Kang Interview
1932 was an important year in Sino-Japanese relations. In March, the puppet state of Manchukuo was proclaimed, manufactured out of the conquered northeast region of Manchuria. It was also a momentous year for Shanghai when the city became a battleground. It’s on the verge of the undeclared war that we regroup with Inspector Danilov and Detective-Sergeant Strachan in The Killing Time, the fourth book in this series by MJ Lee.
[Read more…] about The Killing Time Review & MJ Lee Inteview
January 1937. On a bitterly cold night, the body of a young Englishwoman is found u
nderneath the Fox Tower in eastern Peking. The murdered girl is Pamela Werner, the daughter of a retired British diplomat and her killer vanished into the darkness. Midnight in Peking by Paul French is the definitive account of this forgotten girl’s murder.
[Read more…] about Midnight in Peking Review & Interview With Paul French
Like Weimar Berlin, Shanghai in the 1920s and 30s has always held a unique appeal for me. It’s got everything:
bloodthirsty gangsters, seedy prostitutes, glamorous nightclubs, spies, political intrigue, and a cosmopolitan feel that makes Berlin look like Oklahoma.
[Read more…] about The Murder Game Review & MJ Lee Interview