Customer Reviews

The Haunted Monastery: A Chinese Detective Story

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An unexpected storm forces Judge Dee and his three, (yes three!) wives to seek shelter at a Taoist monastery. The wives go straight to bed but the Judge must pay his respects to the abbot before joining them. Thus begins a frantic night of murder and mayhem during which Judge Dee, suffering from a bad head cold, must solve a series of murders, rescue a maiden in distress and arrange for the villain to meet his just deserts, bringing together two sets of star-crossed lovers along the way. "I should give up being a magistrate and become a match-maker!" he grumbles. One of the best of the series.

Let's face it; Robert Van Gulik may be an expert on 7th century China, but he isn't exactly a Pultizer-Prize winning author. His writing style is somewhat plain and simple and you'll never be knocked out by his glowing literary descriptions. What he does manage to do, though, is bring this long-lost era to life with his interesting characters and his cultural and historical know-how while telling an enjoyable tale along the way. While some of his longer books are bogged down by too many characters and too much detail, The Haunted Monastery is virtually perfect. Judge Dee and one of his assistants are stuck in a gloomy monastery on a stormy night. The place is rumored to be haunted, and while the threat of harmful spirits lingers in the background, the judge must solve three seemingly unrelated mysteries which all tie together in the end. Dripping with atmosphere and good, interesting characters, this is a fast and enjoyable read which is perfect for a rainy night or a cold winter's day.

The Haunted Monastery is possibly the best of the Judge Dee novels. As the Judge would say, all the elements are here: an immensely appealing and exotic locale, eroticism without pornography, characters we come to care about, a duel between confucianism and taoism, romance, a monstrous murderer, a damsel in distress, a dauntless hero and more atmosphere than you can shake a chopstick at. Van Gulik makes ancient China come alive, and makes us believe that the people who lived in it, no matter how alien on the surface, are more like us than not. A good read anytime...but a great read on a dark and stormy night.

The Haunted Monastery is a different kind of mystery! I read this book when it first came out in English in 1961. I also read all the other Judge Dee murder mysteries about that time period.

Through surfing Amazon.com, I found out at least sixteen of the series were reprinted in the recent past; so I am rereading them 38 years later! This book, The Haunted Monastery, is set in the Chinese Ming period, and the plates of costumes and customs are representative of the Ming era.

Judge Dee actually lived from A.D. 630 to 700, but the stories in this series of books are fiction.

The writing in The Haunted Monastery is easy to read, but the mystery is complicated. Clues to who the murderers might be are given in several of the pictures. And it is fun to try to guess who did what and why.

The author is an expert on Chinese culture and history. He was a Dutch Diplomat who lived in China.

From the stories and the plates, one learns about Confucian and Tao ethics and philosophy. I am finding the entire Judge Dee series delightful reading. I am enjoying them even more now than I did in the past!

I just ordered this because I loved the TV movie "Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders" from 1974. I understand it was based on this book. If that's the case I'm sure this will be a great read. If you haven't seen the movie you should as it has a great cast with Khigh Diegh, Mako, Irene Tsu, James Hong, Soon-Tek Oh, Keye Luke, and many others. The movie is very well done. Unfortunately it is not available on VHS or DVD. You will have to catch it on TV when it is telecast. I haven't seen it in years myself, so I keep hoping to find it on DVD. Let me know if you see it somewhere.

If I were just learning how to write this would be a prefect example. Forty five percent of the book is description. Who cares if Judge Dee has three or four hairs growing out of the mole on his face? And evidently, he prefers girls with bushy eyebrows.

Other than that, it could be a decent mystery if it did not drag on and on. This may be due to the story being a little too short to publish; it took up three cassettes. The mystery its self is O.K. there is no last minute butlers to show up and confess. Evidently this is part of some Judge Dee series. Therefore, someone must like his style.

The story takes place in a monastery where Judge Dee just happens to be passing during a storm and need a place to stay with his three wives. He whiteness some impossible things and meets some mysterious people.

If I were just learning how to write this would be a prefect example. Forty five percent of the book is description. Who cares if Judge Dee has three or four hairs growing out of the mole on his face? And evidently he prefers girls with bushy eyebrows.

Other than that it could be a decent mystery if it did not drag on and on. This may be due to the story being a little too short to publish; it took up three cassettes. The mystery its self is O.K. there is no last minute butlers to show up and confess. Evidently this is part of some Judge Dee series. So someone must like his style.

The story takes place in a monastery where Judge Dee just happens to be passing during a storm and need a place to stay with his three wives. He whiteness some impossible things and meets some mysterious people.

Nice short mystery. You'll be grateful to Van Gulik for giving his characters, from Sixth Century China, such a naturalness of expression. You'll never be bored by forced idioms, just as you'll never be asked to sit helplessly by as obvious differences between that culture and ours get exploited to the realm of the cliche (for instance, Judge Dee's three wives actually get along and are a natural part of the plot). Trouble is, the plot's a bit pedestrian when all's said and done -- a very formula production (as, let's admit it, are most mysteries).