First published 2008
In the monastery of the Valley of Sorrows, a librarian lies dead, his face frozen in absolute terror. The ancient scroll he was studying has vanished. Master Li, China's finest detective, arrives with his assistant Number Ten Ox, a pure-hearted peasant who serves as the perfect foil to the brilliant but morally flexible scholar. The evidence points directly to the Laughing Prince, a despotic noble known for his cruelty and torture. The prince seeks to hide knowledge of a fabulous stone for his own dark purposes. Only one problem complicates this seemingly straightforward case: the Laughing Prince has been dead for more than seven hundred years. As Li and Ox dig deeper into the mystery, they must confront supernatural forces that bridge the gap between the living and the dead. The murdered librarian's face tells of horrors beyond the mortal world, suggesting that some evils transcend death itself. In this China that never was but should have been, Master Li must solve a case where the impossible becomes terrifyingly real.
Genres: historical-fiction, adventure, crime, fantasy, detective, alternate-history
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, found-family
Setting: China, Valley of Sorrows
Period: Ancient, Medieval
256 pages · Paperback · Madrid: Alamut
Content warnings: violence