Customer Reviews

The Master of Rain (Windsor Selection)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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!!

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.

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.

I give this book 4 stars. I thought it really did a good job in bringing to life the smell and feel of pre-Communist Shanghai. And many of the justifications of the communist takeover as well.

The mystery itself I found a little weak.

I really enjoy thrillers that take place in exotic locations, and in other eras. This excellent work does both, the action taking place in the foreign Concessions of Shainghai in 1926. We see a varied cast of characters, and the plot leaves the reader guessing as to the motives and loyalties of each one. The author successfully invokes the moral ambiguity of the period, and the tale moves along fairly swiftly. This is one book well worth reading, and I recommend it highly!

Top flight entertainment. Once the reader accepts the less-than-perfect editing - annoying overuse of the word "frown," for instance, as well as a few anachronisms of dialogue - the novel grabs hold and never relents. The story twists and turns through a shadowy underworld. Bradby's central character is both naive and tough (ala many Grisham protagonists), but it's the supporting characters that really shine. With a plethora of different nationalities crammed into Shanghai, Bradby presents distinctive characters in a unique setting, a gangland Chicago of the Orient. Also, the plot is not merely a whodunit. There's historical context and politics and betrayal and romance. Steamy, fast-paced, and daring in scope, The Master of Rain is an engrossing page-turner.

Tom Bradby is the author of two previous thrillers in Great Britain. Ironically, his first book published in the US is actually a bold sweeping historical mystery most noted for it's dead on detail of Shanghai in 1926.
Richard Field is a young Englishman, recently trained police officer, who is working in Shanghai in the pre-Communist days. Shanghai is a city of contrasts with a French section, an International section and the Chinese section. Each have their own authority in policing their regions. Field works in the International Settlement with his English speaking colleagues. In his first case, he finds himself investigating the brutal stabbing of a Russian prostitute. It seems she was the property of a local crime lord, Lu Huang. Field wants to work the case but he meets resistance along the way. Most would rather not go up against Lu and his umbrella of fear. Field, therefore, faces much difficulty. To complicate matters, he falls in love with another of Lu's Russian women, Natasha Medvedev. This, of course, places him directly into the path of Lu's wrath. Danger abounds as Field tries to solve the crime and very possibly save the woman he loves.
Tom Bradby has done copious research in his attempt to bring to life the exotic locale of Shanghai in the year 1926. A detailed map is found in the inside cover of the book thereby setting out the sheer depth that the author will use to tell his story. Characters, both the elegant and the poor are carefully crafted and frequently enter and exit the complex stage as Field goes about his investigation. As is so often the case in these epic detail rich historical novels, pacing suffers as a result. Yet, the exotic locale, the fine writing and the superior characterizations make up for the leisurely pace. THE MASTER OF THE RAIN is well worth the readers full attention.

This book would probably make a much better movie than it did a book. In my opinion, Bradby could use a better editor.

A dead prostitute lies in her bed, stabbed repeatedly and handcuffed to the bedposts. A morally compromised police investigator must look into her death, paying special attention to the potential political implications of the murder. Given that the setting is 1926 Shanghai, the politics are somewhat tangled: no one's really running China at the moment, warlords run rampant, and in the International Community in Shanghai (where the novel takes place) the business leaders, all of them European, fear a Bolshevik rising more than anything. The city's full of Russian exiles fleeing the Communists, Chinese gangsters, and Westerners with pasts they wish to leave behind.

This is one of the most complex, involved, atmospheric novels I've read in a good while. Think James Ellroy's L. A. Confidential, but with a Chinese setting and a more multi-culturnal cast. There is a great deal here about moral compromises, and what they do to those who make them. There's also a wonderful mystery, complete with various characters scheming to get ahead or get by or survive, using each other in the pursuit of that goal.

I frankly was amazed by this book, spent most of a Saturday afternoon trying to finish it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it.

British author Bradby evokes teeming, profit-driven, colonially divided 1920s Shanghai in a story of sexual murder and colonial corruption. Sweltering in his one good Yorkshire suit, Richard Field, newcomer to the special branch of Britain's Shanghai police force, is immediately plunged into the intricacies of political turf and criminal expediency when assigned to the vicious murder of a Russian émigré prostitute.

Partnered by a seasoned, tough American cop, Field learns that the dead girl is one of a string of sexual slayings, all Russian prostitutes belonging to Chinese mob boss Lu Huang. Falling for another of Huang's Russian girls and bewildered by his department's complacency in accommodating the crime boss, Field ignores myriad warnings and plunges into Shanghai's underworld, determined to track the serial killer and bring down Huang.

Like a Russian nesting doll, the plot's layers split to reveal new layers. Cracks lead into every aspect of the city's ruling life, exposing the ruthless ascendancy of greed. Bradby packs in enough historical atmosphere to be dizzying - the rising communist sympathies, the frictions between British and French, exploited by the Chinese, the secret-harboring expatriates of colonial life and the flourishing lure of decadence, to name a few. Bradby occasionally grows overwrought melding his intricate plot with the intricate history, but both draw in the reader and the ending, while unlikely, is satisfying.