Death Notice

Set in Chengdu in 2002, this uneven opening volume in a bestselling trilogy in China—the first of Zhou’s books to be translated into English—offers little that American suspense fans haven’t seen before. Shortly after Sgt. Zheng Haoming begins looking into new evidence concerning a case he investigated in 1984, he is found stabbed to death in his apartment. Meanwhile, someone using the pseudonym Eumenides, for the Greek goddesses of retribution, posts a call for justice on a message board, asking the public for the names of wrongdoers who deserve punishment. Since this person seems to be the killer in the 18-year-old case, the police re-form the original task force. Eumenides begins to post a series of execution notices, but, despite the forewarning, the police are unable to prevent the killings. Zhou does a credible job keeping the clues and the complicated plot straight, but clichéd prose (“You cut right to the center, like a hot knife through butter. A woman after my own heart!”) may be a problem for some readers. Few will eagerly await the second volume. (June)