The Master of Rain [Hardcover]

Tom Bradby (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2002

"For Richard Field, a young Englishman new to the international police force, Shanghai represents a brave new world away from the past he is trying to escape. But his naivete is quickly dashed when he is called to the scene of a brutal crime, in which a young Russian woman, Lena Orlov, has been found sadistically murdered in her bed. Field's idealistic instincts push him to investigate the case, but his attempts are met with apathy - then menace - from his colleagues. He beings to recognize that some cases in Shanghai are intended to remain unsolved, and, in a matter of days, he glimpses the murky depths that lurk beneath a luminous city." "Field's drive to find the murderer leads him to Lena's neighbor, Natasha Medvedev. A stunning beauty who fled her charmed life in tsarist Russia, Natasha escaped the Revolution but landed, like many of her counterparts, in a treacherous life in Shanghai. Natasha travels in an elite circle - one that orbits, Field knows, around the city's most feared drug lord, Lu Huang. As Field's attraction to the beguiling Natasha grows, he is faced with a piercing question: Can he trust someone whose only goal is self-preservation? And is it wise to fall in love with a woman who may herself be the next victim?" Trusting only his Chicago-hardened American partner, Caprisi, Field follows leads that run into the heart of a lawlessly corrupt city, slowly uncovering a web of deception that will leave him reeling.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First edition. edition (2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0641609272
• ISBN-13: 978-0641609275
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,805,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Four hundred pages of unrelenting tension...., June 12, 2002

By 

"justplainnancy" (Minnetonka, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Master of Rain (Hardcover)

I was totally caught up in "The Master of Rain." For hundreds of pages I shared with the young hero the confusion of literally not knowing what was going on, who if anyone could be trusted. I've read the publishers' reviews Amazon has posted, and know that they criticize the book for flawed/hackneyed writing in spots and for a failure to capture Shanghai's atmosphere in any detail. But for me, Tom Bradby did a fantastic job of capturing the atmosphere of the EXPATRIATE's Shanghai, quite a different matter, and sustaining an almost unbearable tension to the very last paragraph. This is one gripping book!!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a gripping, haunting and compelling read, May 5, 2002

By 

tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Master of Rain (Hardcover)

Reading "The Master of Rain" is a bit like immersing yourself in a really good and gripping black and white American noir flick from the '40s. The ingredients are all there: a prostitute is found brutally murdered, and the young policeman (Richard Field, fresh off the boat from Yorkshire) assigned to this his first major murder case, is determined to prove himself and to discover who perpetrated this heinous crime, no matter what. But then there is the complication of the murdered woman's beautiful neighbour (Natasha Medvedev), with whom Field finds himself perilously drawn to, and who has her own share of painful and dangerous secrets to hide...

Field soon finds himself trying to navigate through waters he doesn't quite understand. To begin, the police department (a multinational concern) is split up into two rival departments -- Special Branch that deals mainly with the communist threat, and the Criminal Division which deals with all other types of crime, like murder, theft, etc -- that are at odds with each other. Neither division quite trusts the other, and each suspects the other of consorting with the local crime lord, Lu Huang. Field has been assigned to Special Branch, but finds himself seconded to the Criminal Branch for the duration of this investigation into the murder of Lena Orlov. The ritualistic and savage manner with which the murder was carried out suggests that the murderer has struck before, and that he will strike again. In the face of public apathy (after all the victim was only another Russian prostitute), Field soon finds that his only allies to solving this murder happen to be the two detectives he's currently working with, Caprisi and Chen. But the more they investigate, the more evidence they uncover of corruption and criminal activity. No one seems above board. Alone in a land whose politics and culture he doesn't quite understand, and finding himself being constantly advised by everyone to trust no one, and to be careful of what his actions will wrought, Field soon finds himself even beginning to doubt both Caprisi and Chen. As one character in the book states, people come to Shanghai to either escape their past, or else to enrich themselves. Can Field afford to trust his partners? And will they be able to apprehend Lena Orlov's murderer before he strikes again? Or will this crime, like so many others, be swept under the rug of political expediency? And what of Natasha? Is she as ignorant as she claims of Lena's comings and goings? Or is she hiding something? With his own share of personal demons that he has to contend with, Field is nevertheless determined to discover who this serial killer is, and to put an end to his reign of terror.

This is definitely the mystery novel of the year (so far anyway). What a fantastically engrossing read! While the novel does unfold in a rather slow and circular manner, Tom Bradby had done an excellent job of steeping "The Master of Rain" with ambiance and atmosphere, that reading every single word so that I got every nuance, seemed terribly important. I thought that the authour had done a really good job of bringing Shanghai of the 1920s -- the sights and sounds as well as the political, social and economic realities -- to life. I also thought that Bradby had done a wonderful job of depicting and bringing to life all the characters in this novel -- esp the torn and tormented Fields. All in all, "The Master of Rain" is a rich and haunting novel not to be missed.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mystery at its best!, May 22, 2002

By 

Charlie B. (fairfax, va United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Master of Rain (Hardcover)

What a page turner! Very much reminded me of the excitement present in Caleb Carr's work. This book abounds with all of the ingredients that make up a good murder mystery: politics, greed, and sex. Set in Shanghai during the 20's, Bradby brings the reader on a journey of intrigue and fast paced drama. You will walk away with a keen sense of the social climate of China before it fell to Communism but you will not quite understand how you got it, for the message is subtle. Bradby does not drown you with pages of detail but gently weaves it through out the story.
Not knowing much of China myself, I felt a weird sense of sympathy for the country and could almost see the purpose that communism served there. Through his diverse characters, you will obtain insight into the impact of foreigners on the country, the division of classes within its borders, the skin trade, drug smuggling, and the brutality inherent in organized crime.
A brilliant book! A history lesson on a subject rarely talked about with the bonus of a solid mystery. A little slow in starting out but stick with it, once it takes off it is worth it.