A grotesquely burned corpse found in a city park is a troubling mystery for Beijing detective Li Yan. Yan, devoted to his career as a means of restoring the respect his family lost during the Cultural Revolution, needs outside help if he is to break the case.

The unidentified cadaver in turn provides a welcome distraction for forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell. Campbell, married to her work and having left America and her broken past behind, throws herself into the investigation and before long uncovers a bizarre anomaly.

An unlikely partnership develops between Li and Campbell as they follow the resulting lead. A fiery and volatile chemistry ignites, exposing not only their individual demons, but an even greater evil - a conspiracy that threatens their lives, as well as those of millions of others.

Listening Length

13 hours and 54 minutes
Author

Peter May
Narrator

Peter Forbes
Audible release date

April 5, 2018
Language

English
Publisher

Hachette Audio
ASIN

B07CB92YFF
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	13 hours and 54 minutes
Author	Peter May
Narrator	Peter Forbes
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	April 05, 2018
Publisher	Hachette Audio
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07CB92YFF
Best Sellers Rank	#39,563 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #85 in Medical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals) #253 in Medical Thrillers (Books) #287 in International Mystery & Crime (Audible Books & Originals)

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

6,584 global ratings

5 star		46%
4 star		33%
3 star		13%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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CommonSense101

Plausible and frightening story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 6, 2022

Verified Purchase

Excellent combination of mystery, culture clashes, and romance. I'll look forward to the next one. May is one of my favorites.

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Nancy Reads

Deadly rice

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

After reading this book I will never eat genetically altered food, because mixing the genes may create unintended, deadly consequences. Shades of covid. Very well written, researched and fleshed out. A glimpse of police work in China. In the midst of this a couple fall in love. Very satisfying read.

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Julio Luz

In times of covid-19 pandemics, a very relevant plot

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 5, 2021

Verified Purchase

Besides of being a very entertaining book, the attention to detail and the careful reconstruction of a China post cultural revolution provides a very convincing background to a rigorous procedural police mystery whose underlying plot is very relevant today. The author handles with mastery the techno-thriller clichés. I could not put down until the very end. Peter May is the Alexander Dumas of our times. Bravo !!

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Virginia Wallace

Eerily prescient.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 11, 2021

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I loved Peter Mays Lewis trilogy and the Enzo files, but I thoroughly enjoyed this first book of his China series. Never having been to China I felt May opened up this world for me and found myself absorbed with its strangeness and likeness to the US. Unfortunately we are in a pandemic with the coronavirus at this time which many believed started in China, so travel is out of the question.

One person found this helpful

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WB, Zeno

I don't understand ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 27, 2007

Verified Purchase

why I'm so out of sync with the majority opinion, but for me the ending, and the coming together of the threads, are implausible, although the explanation of the connection between the murders is a very clever find.
In the PB edition the last two pages and the epilogue have obviously been written with a movie sequel in sight.
If the author's description of the Chinese (or Beijing only?) police methods and ambiance is accurate, he is to be commended for revealing a little-known aspect of that country's culture, but outside of that and of some geographical details, you can get the same info reading any serious travel guide or even newspaper. In fact, it seemed incredible to me that the US pathologist could be so ignorant of Chinese mores and customs. So one star for both atmosphere and the cliché-ridden romantic touches, and four/three stars for plot development (the beginning is rather fast-paced, but then it slows down and is diluted as the book gets burdened with the details of the pathologist's sentimental background, and of her ongoing affair).
I was uncertain between two and three stars for the whole book, but really, I don't think countries decide vital matters in the way depicted there (although of course for each country one can cite a Lysenko, a Great Leap Forward and a Cultural Revolution, an invasion of Irak, ... , and so maybe another star might have been in order).

7 people found this helpful

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Marina Kos

Readable

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 17, 2016

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I still have to read some more thrillers by Peter May, but I have the impression he will never write anything better than the Lewis trilogy. It is obvious that he studied China and it's police force as well as customs and locations he describes BUT.... It is all not nearly as convincing as the description of Hebrides, and the complexity of all the characters in Lewis.... I didn't like the love story between the main characters, it was predictable from the beginning.
The whole complicated story ends too abruptly for me, after the description of all administrative complications and set-ups for Chinese inspector. All in all, I didn't care very much about the main characters. Will try to read some more of the China series, but am afraid it will also show to be a dissapointment.

6 people found this helpful

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jon robards

Crime Mystery

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 19, 2016

Verified Purchase

I did enjoy Peter May's Scottish series. Wonderful writing, lots of suspense and complex interesting stories and characters.But it was a surprise to read this first in his China series.....I did need to check from time to time that it was the same Peter May. The same wonderful writing that just bounds along, interesting characters and of course the Chinese culture, so different especially when seen through American Margaret Campbell's eyes.
However Margaret's character was depicted as 'typical American' - arrogant, superficial, always sorry for herself. I found her sexual exploits to be embarrassing and there was more than a touch of Mills & Boon in the storyline. Of course Dr Campbell's success in solving the Chinese police's little mystery was to be expected.

10 people found this helpful

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Buckeye Barbara

Twists and Turns

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 12, 2020

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I've read several Peter May books, but this is the first about China. It kept me in suspense to the very end. His research was incredible and I learned so much about the Chinese way of life, government, culture, and thinking. His description of Beijing was very detailed, and his characters well- developed. I'm anxious to read the sequels.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Kindle Customer

A revelation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

I am just halfway through this book and am totally hooked. Aside from the story, the sense of place through description is fabulous. I am there with the scents and sights of bustling downtown Beijing. The insight into the life, culture, history, social structure and etiquette of China is vividly brought to life especially through the eyes of Dr Margaret Campbell a "liberated and sceptical" American. There is a love story developing but I cannot comment on that .....yet! The story is also fascinating. The fact that May was writing about GM issues and possible long-term effects on our world (possible pandemic) in 1999 is particularly relevant now.

5 people found this helpful

Mig Bardsley

Not bad

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

Lots of cliche, a fairly complex plot, and interesting cultural background and a fairly standard pair of protagonists - big, dark, gifted and unconventional Li Yan, the Chinese policeman and blonde, blue-eyed, American Margaret, the forensic scientist visiting Beijing to lecture for six weeks. Naturally, over a burned corpse, they develop a relationship and naturally the cultural differences roughen the path for them.
Naturally, their investigation brought them up against business and government plots embroiled them in an international conspiracy with world altering consequences.
The Chinese cultural and historical elements were interesting and I enjoyed them (but I took much of it with a pinch of salt given the many other cliches in the novel).
Some elegant and telling detail.
A good light read. I shall probably read at least one more in the series.

8 people found this helpful

Barbara Jenkins

Just a bit pedestrian really

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

I have read 2 of the China series now, coming to them straight after reading the 3 Lewis series novels. And what a let down! I loved the Lewis books, peopled by imperfect characters in a compelling landscape that was almost an character in its own right. The narrative felt authentic, and the actions and emotions of the characters felt right. I don't know if Peter May wrote the China series a while ago before writing the Lewis series, but it feels like it. They are not as subtle or polished, and the setting, while compelling for its exoticism, often reads like a lecture. But my biggest bugbear is the overuse of cliché, sometimes in language but mostly in imagery. I am heartily sick of learning what characters look like because of the frequency with which they catch sight of themselves in a mirror. I won't continue with the China series, but, given that I loved the Lewis series and also Coffin Road (despite not because of the polemic within), I'll try others by Peter May.

15 people found this helpful

Bob

A change from the usual May books but give it a chance...you won't regret it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 6, 2018

Verified Purchase

Having read the Lewis Trilogy first, then rode the coat tails of Enzo MacLeod around France it only seemed correct to head off to China.
Written at a different pace to the aforementioned works, The Fire Maker was slower in the crime narrative but gave much more insight into the social and cultural backgrounds of our characters and their surroundings. At times I forgot about the actual crime whilst I learnt a lot about China and their ways. However the crime itself was gripping enough to keep me hooked. Twists, turns and grisly horror arrived in a way that was so unexpected and left you feeling as wrung out as the protagonists.
When I first started the novel I wasn't sure if I would continue the China series but Book 2 has just landed on my Kindle as I type this review...

5 people found this helpful

chessherej

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

Having just finished the Lewis Trilogy, with their Outer Hebrides setting which I thoroughly enjoyed and show Peter May as a gifted author and master of descriptive narrative and suspense, I was keen to try this book for it's complete change of setting, Beijing.
So disappointing. I cannot believe that such drivel has been written by the same author. This book has all the cliches of a cheap Mills and Boon paperback , tall dark man meets extremely beautiful blonde and hate one another at first sight.
You immediately l know that it will be happy ever after by the end.
Blonde is not only an extremely intelligent forensic pathologist, but also has a photographic memory and can beat at first attempt a Chinese master chess player at his own game. The detective is no less super. It was cringe worthy!
So predictable. So boring.
I gave the story line 3 stars for originality.
Peter May why did you write this rubbish. You can do 100 times better.

3 people found this helpful

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