Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China [Kindle Edition]

Paul French (Author)

Book Description

A riveting true-crime tale that presents the thrilling account of a murder in 1937 China that caused an international media sensation

 

Chronicling an incredible unsolved murder, Midnight in Peking captures the aftermath of the brutal killing of a British schoolgirl in January 1937. The mutilated body of Pamela Werner was found at the base of the Fox Tower, which, according to local superstition, is home to the maliciously seductive fox spirits. As British detective Dennis and Chinese detective Han investigate, the mystery only deepens and, in a city on the verge of invasion, rumor and superstition run rampant. Based on seven years of research by historian and China expert Paul French, this true-crime thriller presents readers with a rare and unique portrait of the last days of colonial Peking.

Editorial Reviews

Review

An instant true crime classic. Grips from the first page to the last -- David Peace, Author Of Red Riding And The Damned United Fascinating and irresistible. I couldn't put it down -- John Berendt, Author Of Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil Written in the style of a gripping murder mystery, but all the facts are true -- Kirsty Lang BBC Radio 4 (Book of the Week) Engrossing true crime whodunnit... A terrific read -- Andrew Holgate Sunday Times Not only does Mr French succeed in solving the crime, he resurrects a period that was filled with glitter as well as evil The Economist French has an easygoing prose style... well chosen quotes bring a new vigour and crispness... [He] succeeds in giving voice to a tragic quest for justice Sunday Telegraph It is the storytelling flair that marks Midnight in Peking so highly above the run-of-the-mill true crime stories: with its false leads and twists, it sucks the reader in like the best fiction The Scotsman The shocking true tale, combined with prose you can't drag yourself away from, makes Midnight in Peking a work of non fiction as compulsive as any bestselling crime novel. It also brings justice at last for a young woman whose murder nearly went unsolved Sunday Express Terrific, engrossing ... a gruesome tale of a hitherto forgotten case, and of the sheer tenacity of a grieving father -- Caroline Sanderson The Bookseller

About the Author

Born in London, Paul French has lived in China for more than 10 years. He is a widely published analyst and commentator on China; his books include a history of North Korea, a biography of Shanghai adman and adventurer Carl Crow, and a history of foreign correspondents in China.

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Product Details

• File Size: 2924 KB
• Print Length: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (April 24, 2012)
• Sold by: Penguin Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0072NWJRK
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,756 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Asia > China
  • #2 in Books > History > Asia > China
  • #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > World > 20th Century

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 91 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Midnight In Peking - Gritty True Story of Murder and Mayhem in Pre-WWII China April 24, 2012

By Kathleen Edwards

Format:Hardcover

Pamela Werner was a high-spirited, independent young woman living with her father in Peking, China during the late 1930s.
On a cold January night in 1937, Pamela was found brutally murdered at the foot of one of Peking's well-known landmarks - the Fox Tower.

Pre-world war II Peking was a stressful place to live. China was in the midst of a civil war and the Japanese had invaded and were waiting for the opportunity to capture the city.

Nerves were frayed. A cloud of doom hung over the streets. Even the well-protected foreign nationals were feeling the shifting of events. But the brutal murder of Pamela Werner kicked the anxieties of the city up several notches. Both the Chinese and foreign nationals fearfully wondered who could have butchered this innocent young girl.

Paul French's Midnight In Peking is a masterfully woven non-fiction murder mystery peopled with smug British diplomats, harried Scotland Yard detectives, Chinese police officers with mysterious agendas, an American dentist with degraded, lustful designs, and a beautiful young woman who isn't all that she seems.

French has done his research, and his findings from the papers of Pamela's father are most intriguing. Even after the British dropped the case, Werner doggedly pursued his daughter's murderer asking help from the Chinese and even the occupying Japanese. His determination to find his daughter's killer is inspiring.
Midnight In Peking reads like a true-to-life Agatha Christie with a lot more carnality. Peking, like most places, had a dark side that could lure a naďve young woman to her death, and French takes us there.

This is no stuffy history text. It's a blood and guts whodunit that twists and turns through the not so savory back alleys of the present capital of China and digs up dirt on some of her upstanding citizens and those not so upstanding.

French delivers history you can smell, taste, and feel. Midnight in Peking transports you to an extremely turbulent time in China's history and puts you in the middle of the events that transpired that frigid night.

History and mystery. As a fan of both genres, Midnight in Peking is a win-win.

Courtesy copy of Midnight in Peking from Penguin Books through Net Galley
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40 of 45 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A murder that slipped from history April 25, 2012

By TChris TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

The mutilated corpse of a foreigner found at the base of Fox Tower on January 8, 1937 posed a special problem for Peking police. The victim was a free-spirited young woman named Pamela Werner. When Pamela wasn't attending school in Tientsin, she lived in Peking with her adoptive father, Edward Werner, a scholar and former British consul. She had been beaten to death and then dumped at Fox Tower. Multiple wounds were inflicted post-mortem in an apparent attempt to dismember the body. Sections of her skin and some of her organs had been removed.

The task of investigating the crime fell to Han Shih-ching, with the assistance of Detective Chief Inspector Richard Dennis, who headed the police in the British Concession in Tientsin. Dennis delved into Edward Werner's troubled past, learning of the problems he caused in his various diplomatic postings before he got sacked, a history suggestive of mental instability. Gossip -- the favorite sport of the expat community -- suggested that death and tragedy were Werner's constant companions, including the suspicious death of his wife.

A little more than a third of the narrative has passed by before a promising suspect emerges, but if solving the crime were that easy there would be no story to tell -- at least not a story filled with drama and intrigue. Fortunately for the reader (less so for Han and Dennis), the British government increased its efforts to impede Dennis' investigation, suggesting that a cover-up, if not a full-blown conspiracy, was afoot. Brits Behaving Badly becomes a subtext, as does the concept of "saving face," a characteristic often associated with Asians but quite applicable to the British living and working in China. Racial bigotry also played a role in the British government's insistence that the investigation should focus on Chinese rather than foreign residents.

The investigation took place as Peking prepared for invasion by the Japanese. As in any complex investigation, Dennis and Han pursued a number of false leads. The investigation brought them into contact with foreign residents of Peking who indulged in (to put it delicately) unusual recreational activities, suspicious but not necessarily related to Pamela's murder.

A little more than halfway through the narrative, Dennis finally receives information that provides a credible solution to the mystery while pointing to a suspect who is beyond the law's reach. At that point, however, Peking is virtually under siege by the Japanese and Pamela's disappearance is all but forgotten. Dennis is recalled to Tientsin, the official investigation is closed, and it falls to Werner to use his own resources to discover the truth about his daughter's death. He pursues that goal relentlessly over the course of several years.

Midnight in Peking reads like a well-paced murder mystery, but it is ultimately a tale of corruption, not just within the Peking police but, more startlingly, within the British government, whose officials valued the façade of British civility more than the truth. The narrative proceeds at a steady pace and is enlivened by insightful examinations of the principle players. Paul French provides the reader with enough background facts to add flavor but not so many as to bog down the narrative in needless detail. The text is well-documented in a series of endnotes. It seems likely that, for the sake of good story telling, French re-creates some scenes and conversations in greater detail than the historical record allows, but the book suggests no reason to believe that he has plays fast and loose with historical fact. His attempt to tie the "fox spirit" into the story -- representing a woman who beguiles and betrays -- is colorful but a bit weak. Still, Midnight in Peking is a fascinating look at a forgotten moment in a distant land, an unsolved murder that "slipped from history" despite the compelling evidence of guilt that Werner finally assembled, and that French faithfully reproduces.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder in a city and society about to vanish into war and upheaval May 10, 2012

By M. Sweeney

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I think some of my favorite kinds of stories are about unsolved mysteries - books that return to murders, lost treasure, and the like years or decades after all the witnesses of the time have been laid to rest, and bring a new eye to the scene. French takes an unsolved murder in Peking in 1937 and paints in a city on the edge of a new and unknown era - the looming Japanese threat of invasion, hard-partying high life, the foreign bureaucrats lost in internal feuds and their desire to not sully the reputation of their little community, and finally a man and his savagely murdered daughter. It would be easy to get lost in any one of those threads but the author managed to balance them all as the story moves through the unravelling of the Chinese rule in Peking and the public and private investigations of the crime.

Pamela Werner was just nineteen when her body was found at the Fox Tower, a locale believed to be haunted by the Chinese. The uneasy partnership of the Chinese police who had jurisdiction over the site, and the British concession detective appointed by the Legation opens the story. Quickly it comes to light that the Werner household isn't the usual; Pamela's father is a former Consul living in a hutong outside the Legation grounds, a solitary scholar away on his explorations for months at a time. And Pamela has her own secrets as a young woman looking to shape her own life as she comes of age...

Thoroughly researched but never academic, always lively, a good read if you enjoy mysteries, Chinese history or just an engaging tale and excellent sleuthwork by the author.

Maps, photos, an audio walk of the relevant sights, and other extras are available on the Midnight in Peking website.

More About the Author

Paul French lives in Shanghai, where he is a business advisor and analyst. He frequently comments on China for the English-speaking press around the world. French studied history, economics, and Mandarin at university and has an M.Phil. in economics from the University of Glasgow.