Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)
Peking in 1937 is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, opulence and opium dens, rumors and superstition. The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner's body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits?
With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives—one British and one Chinese—race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?
Historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind this notorious murder, and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial Peking.
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Paul French. (2012). Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China. Unabridged Books on Tape.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Paul French. 2012. Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China. Books on Tape.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Paul French, Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China. Books on Tape, 2012.
MLA Citation (style guide)Paul French. Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2012.
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- bioText: Historian Paul French lives in Shanghai, where he is a business adviser and analyst. He frequently comments on China for the English-speaking press around the world. He studied history, economics, and Mandarin at university and has an MPhil in economics from the University of Glasgow. He is the author of a number of books, including the New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–winning Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China, Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand, and Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao.
Erik Singer has performed in numerous off-Broadway plays and with regional theaters around the country. He has appeared on television in All My Children and As the World Turns. Singer has also done voice work for numerous commercials, documentaries, and animated shows. - name: Paul French
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- In the last days of old Peking, where anything goes, can a murderer escape justice?
Peking in 1937 is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, opulence and opium dens, rumors and superstition. The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner's body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits?
With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives—one British and one Chinese—race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?
Historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind this notorious murder, and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial Peking. - reviews
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- source: "This is a good murder story, well told, with all the additional pleasures that a knowledgeable tour guide to old China can provide. Grateful readers could scarcely ask for more." – Joseph Kanon, author of Istanbul Passage, in The...
- content: "This is a good murder story, well told, with all the additional pleasures that a knowledgeable tour guide to old China can provide. Grateful readers could scarcely ask for more." – Joseph Kanon, author of Istanbul Passage, in The Washington Post
"Never less than fascinating... one of the best portraits of between-the-wars China that has yet been written." – The Wall Street Journal
"Midnight in Peking is both a detective story and a social history, and therefore – as it should – always keeps the hunt for Pamela's killers somewhere near the center of the narrative. [Paul French] is a wonderfully dexterous guide" – Jonathan Spence in The New York Review of Books
"A crime story set among sweeping events is reminiscent of Graham Greene, particularly The Third Man, while French's terse, tightly-focussed style has rightly been compared to Chandler. Midnight in Peking deserves a place alongside both these masters." – The Independent
"A page-turning and fascinating true crime book. This is a genre-breaker that captures the atmosphere of 1930s Peking." – The Bookseller [selected as One to Watch]
"...the most talked-about read in town this year." – The New Yorker's Page-Turner Blog
"Midnight in Peking is true-crime writing at its best, full of vivid characters, an exotic locale, secrets galore, and a truly bewildering mystery." – The Christian Science Monitor
"...A compulsively readable true crime work in the tradition of Devil in the White City." – The Atlantic.com
"Not only does Mr. French succeed in solving the crime, he resurrects a period that was filled with glitter as well as evil, but was never, as readers will appreciate, known for being dull." – The Economist
"An engrossing read" – Oprah.com
"In today's Beijing, French's portrait feels surprisingly germane." – The Los Angeles Times
"Part historical docudrama, part tragic opera... [French] tells this sorry tale with the skill of an Agatha Christie." – The Financial Times
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- content: Erik Singer narrates a fascinating account of the investigation of the shocking murder of a young Englishwoman, Pamela Werner, set against the backdrop of Peking, a city at a crossroads in 1937, with the Japanese poised to occupy China. Singer's performance is evocative as he transports listeners to the atmosphere of Old China, with its privileged expatriate community and its dignified legations, and its vice-ridden Badlands, rife with prostitution and opium dens. The account of Pamela's brutal murder and her father's search for justice is gripping, capturing a colorful array of characters both foreign and local. Singer allows the material to speak for itself, moving the story forward seamlessly and shedding light on a China of times past. S.E.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
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December 12, 2011
Historian French (Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao) unravels a long-forgotten 1937 murder in this fascinating look at Peking (now Beijing) on the brink of Japanese occupation. The severely mutilated body of 19-year-old Pamela Werner—the adopted daughter of noted Sinologist and longtime Peking resident Edward Werner—was discovered, with many of her organs removed, near the border between the Badlands, a warren of alleyways full of brothels and opium dens, and the Legation Quarter, where Peking’s foreign set resided in luxury. A case immediately fraught with tension was made even trickier when the local detective, Col. Han Shih-ching, was made to work alongside Scotland Yard–trained Richard Dennis, based in Tientsin. The investigation soon stalled: the actual scene of Pamela’s murder could not be found, and leads fizzled out. As China’s attention turned to the looming Japanese occupation, the case was deemed “unsolved.” French painstakingly reconstructs the crime and depicts the suspects—using Werner’s own independent research, conducted after authorities refused to reopen his daughter’s case. Compelling evidence is coupled with a keen grasp of Chinese history in French’s worthy account.
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With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives—one British and one Chinese—race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?
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