Deception: A Novel of Murder and Madness in T'Ang China [Hardcover]

Eleanor Cooney (Author), Daniel Altieri (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1993

Over a period of forty years, chief magistrate Dee fights the malevolent empress Wu, who has killed her own children, exiled her most respected statesman, and reduced her husband to idiocy. 35,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This first-rate historical mystery by the authors of The Court of the Lion is absorbing from the very first sentence. Cooney and Altieri's ability to make the surroundings, events, and cast of characters believable renders the seventh century as vivid as our own. Judge Dee, familar to mystery fans through the novels of Dutch Sinologist Robert Van Gulik, has been brilliantly re-created and restored to his proper time period, the tumultuous reign of the sinister Chinese empress Wu. Surrounded by sycophantic Buddhist charlatans, the empress has initiated a reign of terror, murdering anyone--including and especially family--to achieve her ends. Dee is hard-pressed to maintain his logical Confucian outlook as external and internal threats imperil the empire. His hectic career as an assistant magistrate heats up further as he investigates a series of grisly ritualistic killings, which he believes to be related to a 50-year-old unsolved murder. At home, meanwhile, his two sons cause him mental and spiritual anguish. The many subplots work together to create a sophisticated tapestry of intrigue and ambition. The characters, from the evil empress and her hapless husband to the most minor of court functionaries, are depicted with an insight that reduces their historical and cultural distance from us. Historical novels of this quality are few and far between.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This book's main characters, Magistrate Dee and Empress Wu Tse-tien, are historical figures who lived at a calamitous and well-recorded moment in seventh-century Chinese history. Dee is a detective whose investigation into the murder of the transport minister shows his intelligence, integrity, and faithfulness to traditional, rational Confucian principles. At the same time, Madame Wu, chief consort of Emperor Kao-tsung, schemes to depose his empress and wield absolute power as ruler of China. Eventually, Dee and Empress Wu are brought together. He discovers the truth of the numerous murders she has committed as she seeks to usurp the ancient T'ang dynasty and replace it with her own Chou dynasty, founded on a corrupt form of Buddhism that relies on magic, superstition, and deceit. This second novel about ancient China (following the authors' Court of the Lion , Avon, 1990) is recommended for popular collections.
- Mary Ann Parker, California Dept. of Water Resources Law Lib., Sacramento
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (May 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688089380
• ISBN-13: 978-0688089382
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #917,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Escape novel extraordinaire, January 9, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Deception: A Novel of Murder and Madness in T'Ang China (Hardcover)

This book is set in the glorious T'ang Dynasty in seventh century China. The skeleton of its plot is a murder mystery -- the intelligent, if not perfect, magistrate Dee must find the perpetraters of a series of gruesome murders which lead him into the darker side of that alien Indian religion Buddhism. But that's only the skeleton of a firm fleshed, soft-skinned, fragrant smelling beauty of a novel. There's the force of nature named Wu and her even more forceful mother who bend and work the government of China into their own private plaything. There's lust and intrigue, murder and worse in this long and deliciously written novel. If you're looking for a good, week-long, lock-the-door, take-the-phone-off-the-hook, curl-up-on-the-couch-and- eat-potato-chips kind of novel, this is it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why, oh why, did it have to end?, May 4, 2007

By 

Hawke (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deception: A Novel of Mystery and Madness in Ancient China (Paperback)

In a word, 'perfect'. I fell in love with the Cooney/Altieri team with their first novel, "Court of the Lion". I never would have thought anything could surpass that novel, but "Deception" proved me wrong. "Deception" is set during the tumultuous T'ang Dynasty period of China. Though not exactly a 'prequel', the plot line of "Deception" does precede events in "Court of the Lion". "Deception" recounts the shocking and at times, disturbing, rise of Wu Tse-tien, the only female ever to be declared Emperor of China. In a time rife with superstition, T'ang China was the perfect scenario for religious charlatans to infiltrate the highest positions of power, nearly tearing apart a Dynasty and ages-old Confucian stability. As the corruption and Wu's lust for power grows, manipulation, murder and fear become the order of the day.

Enter Dee Jen-chieh- as Cooney puts it, a 'T'ang answer to Sherlock Holmes'. An unwavering devotee to truth and rationality, the young assistant magistrate soon finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the tangled web of corruption cast over the empire he loves so much. What begins as a simple investigation into a case of a man wrongfully executed for murder leads Dee on a quest for the truth that unnervingly appears to point at the heart of the T'ang, now rotting from within.

As the plot progresses, it becomes clear just how much Cooney has improved as a writer. The writing style is incredible and the final chapters will have your hair on end. Plot is layered upon plot, each skillfully peeled away at just the right time. So many different lives and events are tied together in a masterful buildup to an unforgettable climax, when the truth is finally revealed. Every character and every event, from start to finish, has purpose contributing to the ending. Nothing is unimportant. Everything ties together in the end, in similar fashion to 'Pulp Fiction' and it is every bit as artfully done as in that movie.

What I love most about Cooney's novels are both the descriptive style and character development. You'll love some, hate others, and most likely find your feelings towards some changing over the course of the book, but they seem very, very 'real'. There is Dee, juggling work and his own relentlessly insatiable curiousity with nagging wives and unfilial sons...there is Empress Wu, benevolence and malevolence all in one, a tigress and a lamb, a mother and a murderess...and one of my favorites, the arrogant monk Hsueh Huai-i, characterized by his mannerisms and a tendency to add a '...hm?' after nearly everything he says. And so many more...

Despite being heavily influenced by historical fact, it is important that the reader realize that "Deception" is a work of historical fiction. Empress Wu was a real person and many of the things she did, both good and bad, actually did happen. Of course some liberties were taken and deviations from truth made, but what came of it was a great novel.

"Deception" has drawn some criticism, accused of being anti-Buddhist. This is not the case in the book. It is actually the actions of charlatans maligning the peaceful faith for their own ends. In any religion, their will be corruption; in the time of the T'ang, there were 'dark' Buddhists and their were true practitioners of the faith. Both appear in "Deception". Dee explores the darker sides of both religion and human nature, providing a chilling look at just how powerful an influence religion combined with the fallibility of superstitious human beings can be.

At a hefty 627 pages, 'Deception' could hardly be considered 'too short'. But once it gets underway, the plot moves so fast and the characters are so engaging that the Cooney/Altieri-created T'ang China is a world you won't want to leave.

This novel is nothing short of a masterpiece, and is easily one of the best books I have ever read.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winner, February 1, 1998

By 

A. Woman (Greeneville, Tennessee USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Deception: A Novel of Murder and Madness in T'Ang China (Hardcover)

Shorter, and perhaps not as good as their "Court Of The Lion", I still enjoyed this novel and the duo's style of writing.