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The Paper Bark Tree Mystery (Crown Colony Book 3) by [Ovidia Yu]

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Ovidia Yu

The Paper Bark Tree Mystery (Crown Colony Book 3) Kindle Edition

by Ovidia Yu (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

105 ratings

Book 3 of 5: Crown Colony

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*SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA SAPERE BOOKS HISTORICAL DAGGER*

'Simply glorious. Every nook and cranny of 1930s Singapore is brought richly to life' CATRIONA MCPHERSON

'Charming' RHYS BOWEN

'One of the most likeable heroines in modern literature' SCOTSMAN
_________

Su Lin is doing her dream job: assistant at Singapore's brand new detective agency. Until Bald Bernie decides a 'local girl' can't be trusted with private investigations, and replaces her with a new secretary - pretty, privileged, and white. So Su Lin's not the only person finding it hard to mourn Bernie after he's found dead in the filing room. And when her best friend's dad is accused, she gets up to some sleuthing work of her own in a bid to clear his name.

Su Lin finds out that Bernie may have been working undercover, trading stolen diamonds for explosives from enemy troops. Was he really the upright English citizen he claimed to be?

Meanwhile, a famous assassin commits his worst crime yet, and disappears into thin air. Rumours spread that he may be dangerously close to home.

Beneath the stifling, cloudless Singaporean summer, earthquakes of chaos and political unrest are breaking out. When a tragic loss shakes Su Lin's personal world to its core, she becomes determined to find the truth. But in dark, hate-filled times, truth has a price - and Su Lin must decide how much she's willing to pay for it.
_________

Praise for Ovidia Yu:

'One of Singapore's finest living authors' South China Morning Post

'Chen Su Lin is a true gem. Her slyly witty voice and her admirable, sometimes heartbreaking, practicality make her the most beguiling narrator heroine I've met in a long while' Catriona McPherson

'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels' Rhys Bowen

'A wonderful detective novel . . . a book that introduces one of the most likeable heroines in modern literature and should be on everyone's Must Read list' Scotsman

'Unassuming, brilliantly observant' SCMP

Print length

279 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Constable
Publication date

27 Jun. 2019
File size

1493 KB
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Product description

From the Back Cover

Singapore 19** , and dissent and war loom on the horizon...

SuLin is doing her dream job: assistant at Singapore's brand new detective agency. Until Bald Bernie decides a 'local girl' can't be trusted with private investigations, and replaces her with a new secretary - pretty, privileged, and white. So SuLin's not the only person finding it hard to mourn Bernie after he's found dead in the filing room. And when her best friend's father is accused, she gets up to some sleuthing work of her own in a bid to clear his name.

Meanwhile, beneath the stifling, cloudless Singaporean summer, earthquakes of chaos and political unrest are breaking out. When a tragic loss shakes SuLin's personal world to its core, she becomes determined to find the truth. But in dark, hate-filled times, truth has a price - and SuLin must decide how much she's willing to pay for it.

Praise for Ovidia Yu:

'A wonderful detective novel . . . a book that introduces one of the most likeable heroines in modern literature and should be on everyone's Must Read list' Scotsman

'Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels' Rhys Bowen

[Thumbnails of The Betel Nut Tree Mystery and The Frangipani Tree] [Crime Vault logo]

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Review

'Charming and fascinating with great authentic feel. Ovidia Yu's teenage Chinese sleuth gives us an insight into a very different culture and time. This book is exactly why I love historical novels'
--Rhys Bowen

'Simply glorious. Every nook and cranny of 1930s Singapore is brought richly to life'
--CATRIONA MCPHERSON

'Unassuming, brilliantly observant'
--SCMP --This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07K25RM6N
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Constable (27 Jun. 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1493 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 279 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 81,352 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 1,293 in International Mystery & Crime (Kindle Store)
- 7,316 in Crime Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 16,568 in Thrillers (Books)

Customer reviews:
105 ratings

About the author

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Ovidia Yu

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Ovidia Yu is one of Singapore's best-known and most acclaimed writers. As well as award winning short stories and a children's book, she has had over thirty plays performed and is author of the Aunty Lee books, featuring a crime solving Tai Tai, and the Colonial Crime series set in Colonial Singapore.

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Customer reviews

5 star		57%
4 star		28%
3 star		9%
2 star		4%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from United Kingdom

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Marlies Weston

A tasty guilty pleasure

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 October 2020

Verified Purchase

I really enjoy Ovidia Yu’s Singapore detective novels. Having lived in Singapore many years ago I love the descriptions of delicious Peranakan food in the Auntie Lee books, as well as the period details in the “Tree” books. Something invective curl up with on a grey winter evening.

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Explorer

Easy Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 September 2019

Verified Purchase

Good condition second hand book. Easy read.

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Stephanie Jane (Literary Flits)

Good historical portrayal of Singapore

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 July 2019

The Paper Bark Tree Mystery is the third of Ovidia Yu's Crown Colony crime detection series set in the then British colony of Singapore during the period between the two world wars. I, of course, hadn't previously read the first two books and as a result I think I missed out on character development that had gone before. That said, I really liked Su Lin and appreciated the way in which readers see 1930s Singapore through her eyes. A polio survivor, she does struggle to walk or stand for longer periods of time and this disability means her talents are often overlooked by those around her. Su Lin is also overlooked by members of the colonial administration because of her native Singapore nationality. Yu explores Singapore's racial divides, making interesting points through Su Lin's observations. The island seems to be a melting pot of peoples from all across Asia, with the white Brits presuming to stand above everybody else.

The criminal mystery at the heart of this story unravels in quite a convoluted way with lots of potential suspects. Unfortunately it didn't always keep my attention which was a shame as this novel, in theory at least, should have strongly appealed to me. It's nicely detailed historical fiction which allowed me to learn about the time and place in which it is set. Occasional mentions of the potential for an imminent Second World War add a tense layer of foreboding - especially as my recent reading of How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee meant I was all too painfully aware of what will soon happen. Perhaps I should give the first Crown Colony book a try and work my way back to this one in order to fully appreciate it. The central narrative does satisfactorily stand alone, but I think I would benefit from a deeper understanding of the characters surrounding Su Lin, and I would happily read more of Ovidia Yu's writing so this would be a good excuse!

Helpful

Murder in 1930s Singapore

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2019

This is the 3rd in the Crown Colony series by Ovidia Yu set in the melting pot that is 1930s Singapore, a British colony living through turbulent political times with a war hanging in the horizon. Chen Su Lin is a bright young woman afflicted with a limp courtesy of childhood polio. part of a large extended family, currently living at her Uncle Chen's shop, her family's businesses includes black markets and money laundering. She is working as vital admin support at the Detective Shack, close to Detective Thomas Le Froy, set up by the British to control and put down any challenges to their colonial rule. The British Bernard 'Bald Bernie' Hemsworth was instrumental in seeing Su Lin lose her job, a local, especially a woman, is surely not capable of doing the job, and he wants her replaced by a white woman, Sarah Radley, although it is Dolly Darling who takes up the post. Su Li has been making a living instead by writing articles, teaching English to the Japanese Mrs Maki, and providing secretarial services through the British Mrs Catherine Lexington.

As you might imagine, Bald Bernie is not one of Su Lin's favourite people, but when she turns up at the Detective Shack to help Dolly, who is unqualified and unable to do Su Lin's old job, she is not that distraught when they discover the dead body of Bernie, a man almost universally disliked. The British are not going to let this go, he was representing the colonial powers, and they are determined, in the form of Colonel Mosley-Partington, to find the murderer. They are convinced the killer is an Indian 'terrorist' fighting for Indian Independence, Chirag Bose, responsible for the killing of Alan Weston, and attacking and scarring Sarah, working for Mrs Lexington that led to them moving to Singapore. The British do not trust the locals, afraid of the contagion of Indian rebellion spreading to Singapore, and paranoid about the Indian population and their 'links' with rebels. This has led them to arrest Su Lin's best friend's father, Dr Shankar, which has Su Li investigating, determined to clear him. It turns out Bernie is a race purist, misogynist, spiteful and self righteous. Su Li finds herself having to face further murders, stolen diamonds and poisoned birds, in this case, where little and nobody is as they seem.

Ovidia Yu does a great job in painting a picture of Singapore in the inter-war years, the nature of British colonialism, the inherent racism, their undoubted sense of superiority when it came to the locals, and their hysteria when it came to India, the fear of the potential loss of their jewel in the crown, and their consequent fears of Indians in Singapore as they arrest, imprison and harass them. They are continuing their policy of divide and rule in Singapore, it is barely surprising that so many locals are antagonistic about the exploitative colonial rule. In addition, the region is riddled with some Japanese with their own imperialistic ambitions. This a wonderful and twisted mystery, but for me the highlights of the novel are the rich local details of Singapore and the bigger regional political portrayal in this critical historical period. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

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The Paper Bark Tree Mystery (Crown Colony Book 3) Kindle Edition

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Ovidia Yu

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