Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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

The book twisted a lot of facts regarding Empress Wu. Although a novel, as it depicts a historical figure, a more balanced account should have been given. For example, it is not clear that she killed her own daughter and her mother neither wielded such strong influence nor lived so long.

This story uses what is known about the real 7th century Tang Dynasty magistrate Judge Dee Jen-chieh, who is more popularily known as the Judge Dee created by Robert Van Gulik. Van Gulik's Dee, however, was eroneaously placed in the much later Ming Dynasty and this is more accurate to the Tang. We include this story because of the key involvement of the Empress Wu Zetian in the plot. Wu's particularly nasty side is highlighted in this story, and the good judge labors often in vain against the corruption, betrayal and perversion of Tang Dynasty political life. There is excellent additional information on the Empress in the author's postscript. A caveat: While the details of the setting and historical events are valuable, this is not a book for younger readers.

The most difficult thing about reviewing this book is finding the single word to sum it up in the title. I settled on 'piffle' but it could just as appropriately be 'drivel', or a word with similar connotations.

Why am I saying that? Am I just a disgruntled reader turned off by the melodramatic, overblown, romance-novel style?

No. I'm someone who finds a book that insults not only every historical figure depicted in it, but the culture of a quarter of the world's population, rather offensive.

The book has a smattering of history atop a veritable pasta dish of distortion. I could go through and list its multitudinous aberrations, but to do so would simply occupy space. Suffice to say that neither Wu's mother, nor the (highly competent, if perhaps lacking in ethical fibre) Hsu Ching-tsung, lived long enough to see Wu take the throne. And she wasn't Wu Tse-tien when they were alive, come to that. That's because she didn't become sovereign until 690. For no good reason, this book shunts things fifteen years earlier, and drags in Wu's later inamorata Huai-i as a supervillain.

Having read various accounts of the reign of Wu (probably the most poorly documented period in the Tang Dynasty, whatever the 'official reviewer' from a waterboard library thinks), I have to say that every one of them is a more intriguing story than this concoction. Lin Yutang's 'Lady Wu', for example, is written by an author who clearly hates her as much as Cooney and Altieri, and yet the Wu in his novel is cleverer, more complex, and more human. Dee Jen-chieh too comes over as a more fascinating individual, trying to deal with real problems rather than solving ridiculous mass murders involving chanting monks pretending to be Tibetan Arhats.

Cooney and Altieri appear to have no grasp of Chinese society or culture. The way people address each other, hector each other, emote to each other, is utterly unbelievable. At one point in an audience a minister actually grabs the Emperor by the arm! The Censorate - an organisation set up to regulate and criticise the bureaucracy - here seems to be some kind of Supreme Court. Fundamentals of Chinese law are flouted in the most absurd manner.

At several points I laughed out loud. One was the reference to the Emperor's t'ai chi teacher (over a millenium before it was created). Another was the reference to the excavation of Buddhist texts at Tun-huang (1300 years too early in that case).

In a historical novel, it is inevitable that the author will have to simplify, and in some cases contradict, historical sources. But there's an unspoken trust that in so doing the author makes a sincere attempt to represent the period. Such trust in this book is utterly misplaced.

As a detective story, it's a non-starter (a ludicrous solution to lurid supernatural serial killings). As a political thriller it is handicapped by the unbelievability of any of its overripe characters. So where does that leave it? Ah yes, out of print. Which is where it deserves to be.

So be sure you don't pay more than the few cents it deserves (and I feel that the two laughs I got out of it paid me back for my minimal outlay).