Pen-Lai District, North East China, AD 663. Newly arrived from the Imperial Capital to take up his first post as Magistrate, Judge Dee is at once confronted with three eerie and baffling mysteries which test his analytical and deductive powers to the limit, drawing him along a trail of blood leading to a criminal of boundless ambition -- and to a plot which will rock the vast bureaucracy of the mighty T'ang Empire!
A.D. 668 Meet Judge Dee, the detective lauded as the "Sherlock Holmes of ancient China" — Fans of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series will thrill to this reissue of the first volume in Robert van Gulik's classic Chinese Murders series. The Chinese Bell Murders introduces the great Judge Dee, a magistrate of the city of Poo-yang in ancient China. In the spirit of ancient Chinese detective novels, Judge Dee is challenged by three cases. First, he must solve the mysterious murder of Pure Jade, a young girl living on Half Moon Street. All the evidence points to the guilt of her lover, but Judge Dee has his doubts. Dee also solves the mystery of a deserted temple and that of a group of monks' terrific success with a cure for barren women.