Midnight in Peking: The Murder That Haunted the Last Days of Old China [Kindle Edition]

I heard only one episode of "Midnight in Peking" on BBC Radio 4. I found it so gripping and intriguing that I stopped listening and immediately ordered the book from Amazon.co.uk ([I could have bought one from Amazon.com, but ordering the UK version of the book made it all the more exciting]). I was not disappointed.

Mr French's account of the unsolved brutal murder of young Pamela Werner in the last days before Peking fell to Japanese invaders riveted my attention from beginning to end. The author not only follows the evidential trail of the investigation meticulously, but he also evokes the ambience of Peking's vanished past. He sets the mood in the opening chapter with his evocative account of the reputed malevolent spirits that haunt the Fox Tower, the great eastern gate of the city. I loved his detailed descriptions that swept me from the outwardly respectable elegance of the Legation Quarter into the squalor of the Hutong--the tawdry maze of alleys--of the 'Badlands', with rickshaws, 'fast-food' restaurants, and brothels; where down-at-the-heels Russian emigrés mingled with pimps and prostitutes, as well as with 'respectable' people who were merely out for an evening's slumming.

The book's illustrations--including coloured photos, postcards; newspaper squibs; and black-and-white photographs of the protagonists--enhance the narrative (I especially liked the vintage photo of the long-gowned Peking gentleman walking his caged bird). My only complaint is the absence of a map, which would have aided me to visualise the topography of this vast city, since visualisation is important to appreciating the author's intricate descriptions (I found maps of the old city on the publisher's website, but I would have liked to have had one--even a diagram map--in the book; the omission seems singular in light of the other copious illustrations).

I especially liked the way that Mr French tells the story from the respective points of view of the Chinese Detective, the British Detective, and the Father. As the tangled mystery begins to unfold, we learn what each of them learns, and as they learn it. If we never actually discover Pamela's motivations (e.g., exactly why she was expelled from the various schools she attended in her short life), it is because the author is playing fair: he tells only what the evidence reveals, and he relates it gradually, as it is revealed, red herrings and all. Any further speculation about Pamela's character would take us into the realm of fiction, a temptation that the author rightly avoids.

'Who killed Pamela?' proves, in the end, less elusive than 'Who was Pamela?'--a question that remains unanswered. Part of the fascination with the case--and with Mr French's narrative--rests in the fact that Pamela, herself, remains a mystery. We catch only a glimpse of her. It is as if we had picked up copies of the 1937 newspapers, which were obsessed with the horrific murder, until even more horrific stories of a world gone truly mad pushed Pamela's story off the front pages forever.

Like the insubstantial fox spirits, which were said to flicker "briefly before disappearing" [247], Pamela's image flickers before us momentarily, and then simply disappears.

I found this book a bit like Swiss cheese, pleasant enough to eat, easily digestible, but when you come to look at it full of holes. It is good at describing the feel and atmosphere of old Peking, as well as the complicated political situation. Read as a detective story, the reader is breathlessly drawn to agree with the assumptions of initially DCI Dennis and when he is removed from the case the dead girl's father E T C Werner. It appears open and shut, except...
When I considered it afterwards there are many unanswered questions. The author wholeheartedly agrees with the greiving father's unproven assumptions but there are several holes in his conclusions. I don't want to give away too many spoilers but as Werner was paying witnesses and investigators there is a big possibility that they were telling him what he wanted to hear, several disappear after doing just that. The author never really goes into why those he accuses would have inflicted the damage that was done to the body, if it was, as he suggests to avoid identification why leave clothing and personal items to be found. So for me the crime is still unsolved. What the book does do is reveal the callous indifference and face saving attitude of the British authorities in China at the time. Also unlike many books that deal with crime, this does not put the possible murderers centre stage, we are never allowed to forget the young victim and are haunted by a life unlived.

This is a really interesting and evocative true crime novel, set in Peking as it is poised on the brink of WWII. On a bleak January morning in 1937, the body of a young girl is found at the bottom of Fox Tower, a looming watchtower rumoured to be haunted by spirits. The girl is nineteen year old Pamela Werner and the motive is not robbery, as her expensive watch has stopped near midnight. The murder shocks the foreign inhabitants of Peking, who are already nervous about the possibility of invasion by Japanese troops and who huddle in the Legation Quarter trying to carry on life as normal. It shocks them still more when they discover the way Pamela's body has been mutilated.

The book contains detail of the hunt for Pamela's killer, her life as the adopted daughter of a scholar, motives for her murder and a final, thrilling and horrifying conclusion of what happened to her that fateful night. Along the way we meet the inhabitants of the teeming Badlands area, various cover ups and an innocent young girl who becomes the victim of rumour - viewed either as a troubled schoolgirl, or a rather fast young lady who had too many suitors. Her father is also the victim of those who dislike his inability to fit in with the ex pat community; who distrust his lack of sociability and his embracing of Chinese culture. This is a fascinating account of Peking before the war, of a forign community who were unwilling to accept any of them could be guilty of such a terrible crime and of the innocent Pamela herself who highlighted the community's insecurities. This is a well written and interesting account of what happened and, lastly, I read the kindle edition of this book and the illustrations were included.