The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery (Judge Dee Mystery Series) [Paperback]

Robert van Gulik (Author)

Book Description

Series: Judge Dee Mystery Series | Publication Date: April 1, 2005

A chance encounter with Autumn Moon, the most powerful courtesan on Paradise Island, leads Judge Dee to investigate three deaths. Although he finally teases the true story from a tangled history of passion and betrayal, Dee is saddened by the perversion, corruption, and waste of the world "of flowers and willows" that thrives on prostitution.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

A chance encounter with Autumn Moon, the most powerful courtesan on Paradise Island, leads Judge Dee to investigate three deaths. Although he finally teases the true story from a tangled history of passion and betrayal, Dee is saddened by the perversion, corruption, and waste of the world "of flowers and willows" that thrives on prostitution.

About the Author

Robert Van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. He drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially from the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century.

Product Details

• Paperback: 185 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; First Printing edition (April 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226848736
• ISBN-13: 978-0226848730
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Killed The Courtesan?, February 8, 2009

By 

Miz Ellen "all the letters of my real name" (Bovine Universe) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery (Judge Dee Mystery Series) (Paperback)

When Judge Dee meets Autumn Moon she is wearing a translucent robe. She strolls onto the veranda of the secluded suite of rooms where Dee is staying for night and flirts atrociously with him. Dee remains polite. He has been forced to break his journey at the resort of Paradise Island but he has every intention of going on in the morning.

Then he learns that the suite of rooms, the Red Pavilion, has been the scene of murder in the past. And lately, Lee Lien, a distinguished scholar of a distinguished family, apparently committed suicide there. When Judge Dee returns from a dinner with the local notables, he discovers the body of Autumn Moon on the floor of the locked bedchamber!

Judge Dee was a real magistrate and official of the Tang dynasty. In his fictional series about this great man, Robert Van Gulik searches out notable exploits and tales of the Chinese Imperial system and presents them to modern readers in a form that entertains as well as enlightens. Most of Gulik's Judge Dee stories take place with the magistrate in his district. This one shows Judge Dee on the road, acting as an assessor for a fellow magistrate. The setting is unique in all the Judge Dee books: a pleasure resort where the usual mores and laws are somewhat suspended. The denouement of this fascinating novel brings to mind the adage: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Judge Dee will keep you guessing, September 17, 2002

By 

Tracy L. Benton "tlbenton" (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery (Judge Dee Mystery Series) (Paperback)

One of the most interesting things about Van Gulik's Judge Dee books is that the Judge is usually juggling three or four mysteries at once. Your brain definitely stays awake as he shifts his attention from one to the other. "The Red Pavilion" takes place on "Paradise Island", a town in which the main industry is the selling of pleasure--sort of a Las Vegas of ancient China. Between current murders and murders of the past, the Judge has his hands full, and with only one of his usual four assistants he is a busy guy.

I enjoyed the interesting characters of the various courtesans, bouncers, businessmen, and mysterious beggars no end. His Excellency is not beyond making a guess at a solution and then proving himself wrong, which is quite refreshing in detective novels. If you like detective novels combined with ancient culture, you may well enjoy these books.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Omcpleting my collection of a classic Mystery series, June 7, 2007

By 

Charles Karpuk "greyfalcon" (norfolk, virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Red Pavilion: A Judge Dee Mystery (Judge Dee Mystery Series) (Paperback)

The Judge Dee mysteries were a collection of 15 classic mysteries set in China based on a real magistrate and written by a Dutch scholar of Chines cuture. They are classic mysteries as well as excellent intros to Chinese culture. I am glad it was so easy to replace the books in the series that I had lost, taken from me by a friend. Easy and painless with excellent serice and easier thatn using a bookshop.