Paper Butterfly: A Mei Wang Mystery (Mei Wang Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Diane Wei Liang (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mei Wang Mysteries | Publication Date: May 5, 2009

• International phenomenon: Diane Wei Liang is the ideal international author: a native of China, she has lived and taught in the U.S. and the UK. Her compelling detective series, like Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, has already captured attention around the globe..

• An authentic and skillful storyteller: Diane Wei Liang fled Tiananmen Square in June 1989 and returned to Beijing six years later to find the sweetheart she lost when the troops rolled in, separating them but never severing their bond. In the Mei Wang mystery series, she draws deeply from her life story, filling her books with vivid details that only someone who has lived it firsthand can know..

• An unusual heroine with a growing reputation : Mei Wang is the first successful female private detective in Beijing, and after capturing readers’ hearts in The Eye of Jade , a Book Sense Pick for February 2008, she now turns her attention to the next challenge. When beloved Chinese pop music star Kaili disappears, Mei must unravel a mystery filled with family secrets and the shadowy truth behind China’s labor camps. As Mei follows a trail of clues, Wei Liang takes readers on an adventure through China that will leave them looking forward to part three..

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Two narratives drive Liang's absorbing second mystery to feature PI Wang Mei, who once worked for the ministry of public security (after 2008's The Eye of Jade): Mei's search for a missing pop singer, Kaili, and a subplot that begins nine years earlier with the imprisonment of a student, Lin, for participating in the student demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. Mei's investigation is slowed by the absence of her assistant, Gupin, but as she travels among many Beijing settings, including open-air markets, a big record company's offices, isolated construction areas and migrant workers' housing, the city's astonishing diversity and energy come alive. Fueled by innumerable tidbits about Chinese culture and daily life, the story is refreshingly low on Western-centric references. While the bias is clear, Liang, who left China after taking part in the Tiananmen Square protests, presents the politics with minimal dogma. A twist ending redeems a somewhat thin plot. (May)
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From Booklist

Liang’s second Mei Wang mystery (following The Eye of Jade, 2008) is a significant improvement, presenting a solid and compelling mystery and a fully realized protagonist. Mei Wang, a private detective in late 1990s Beijing who works under the radar after being forced out of a government job, is hired to search for a missing singer. Mei’s search is interspersed with the story of Liu, a recently released prisoner making his way back to Beijing. As in Qiu Xiaolong’s Inspector Chen novels (The Mao Case, 2009), China’s Communist past is always near the surface here, and Liang shows how it affects contemporary events. This time the focus is on the student revolt that led to Tiananmen Square. As Mei learns of the effects that tragedy had on the missing singer, she contemplates her own actions in 1989. The skillfull storytelling—Liang effectively juggles the dual narratives—and the strong sense of place combine to create a tense and compelling private-eye mystery. Mei’s gentle but fiercely independent nature may remind readers of Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs. --Jessica Moyer

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416549579
• ISBN-13: 978-1416549574
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,300,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diane was born in Beijing in 1966 and spent part of her childhood with her parents in a labour camp in a remote region of China. A graduate of Peking University, Diane joined the Student Democracy Movement and took part in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, which culminated in the massacre of hundreds of demonstrators by the People's Liberation Army. Diane has a PhD in Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University, in the US, and was an award-winning business professor in the US and the UK for over 10 years.

Her first book, Lake With No Name, a memoir of Tiananmen and love, was published in 2003 and is reissued in 2009.
Diane is the author of two novels featuring Beijing private detective Mei Wang: The Eye of Jade (2007) and Paper Butterfly (2008). Her novels have been translated into over 20 languages.

Diane now writes full-time and lives in London.

www.dianeweiliang.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Solid Second Offering, May 28, 2009

By 

Edie Dykeman - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Paper Butterfly: A Mei Wang Mystery (Mei Wang Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Paper Butterfly is the second novel in the Mei Wang series written by Diane Wei Liang. Liang was born in Beijing of parents who were consigned to a remote labor camp during part of her childhood. In 1989, she was involved in the protest in Tiananmen Square. Those two experiences provided her with insider knowledge put to good use in Paper Butterfly.

The story begins with Lin, sentenced to eight years in a work camp in Gansu Province at the age of twenty due to betrayal by a childhood friend. His time at the camp cost him his youth, his sweetheart, and almost cost him his life.

The president of a record company hired Mei to find a rising pop star who has gone missing. Kaili had disappeared for several days when Mei agreed to a discreet search into the troubled singer's life. Although the police think her disappearance was related to robbery, Mei began to search into Kaili's past.

After Kaili was found dead, Mei was dismissed from the case. Unable to let go of Kaili's life, Mei decided to continue on her own. She soon found herself receiving threats and her life at risk. Ultimately she found the past violently colliding with the present.

In Paper Butterfly, the author shows how once one's course is set, it is almost impossible to return to the old way of life. Liang writes with poignancy, drawing on the sights, sounds, and smell of a city teeming with life. She has created a modern day female detective struggling with a mix of the new ways and the old traditions of her family. This unique mixture together with Liang's life experiences combine genuine mystery and mystique into one thoroughly enjoyable story.

Paper Butterfly: A Mei Wang Mystery (Mei Wang Mysteries)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good plot, weak characterization, December 15, 2009

By 

Xujun Eberlein "xje" (Boston, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paper Butterfly: A Mei Wang Mystery (Mei Wang Mysteries) (Hardcover)

As the second of Diane Wei Liang's Mei Wang series, the plot of "Paper Butterfly" is an improvement over the author's first novel, "The Eye of Jade," and there are a number of rural scenes that are rendered quite vividly. Unfortunately, the characterization is weaker. Mei Wang's personality traits, which may have fascinated the reader in the previous novel - her aloofness and distaste for "back doors," her rare courage as a female detective, her conflicting emotions toward her mother - are no longer given enough stage to perform, or develop, in this 224-page thin sequel. As a consequence, Mei Wang's role in "Paper Butterfly" is not as memorable. Using a political event familiar to Western readers as the plot driver might be a clever idea, but it does not necessarily work well for an uninteresting protagonist.

Contemporary Chinese detective stories are not a new comer in the stage of English literature. Qiu Xiaolong, for example, has successfully portrayed inspector Chen Cao in a series of novels set in Shanghai. Diane Wei Liang's unique angle is the introduction of a female detective, but that uniqueness has yet to be well exploited.

The novel's writing, executed in the author's second language, poses an issue as to how much rendering of foreign-language terminology is too much. The author seems very eager to teach her readers Chinese nouns, as she uses pinyin (the most commonly used romanization system for standard Mandarin) way too frequently. Many of those nouns, such as "hulu," "tufei," etc, are insignificant words in the book and have readily available English equivalents, thus presenting them in Chinese pinyin doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose other than distraction. A less arbitrary display of Chinese terms might be more effective.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paper Butterfly, January 10, 2010

By 

B. Hale "katznbooks" (Boston Ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Paper Butterfly: A Mei Wang Mystery (Mei Wang Mysteries) (Hardcover)

This is the second book by this author that I have read and thoroughly enjoyed. Ms. Liang writes beautifully. Her prose is sometimes almost poetic. I am hoping Mei Wang continues with her investigations and returns to us very soon.