The Chinese Nail Murders
First UK edition | |
Author | Robert van Gulik |
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Series | Judge Dee |
Genre | Gong'an fiction, Mystery, Detective novel, Crime |
Publisher | Michael Joseph (UK) Harper & Row (US) |
Publication date | 1961 |
Media type | |
Pages | 216 |
Preceded by | The Chinese Gold Murders |
Followed by | The Haunted Monastery |
The Chinese Nail Murders is a gong'an detective novel written by Robert van Gulik and set in Imperial China (roughly speaking the Tang dynasty). It is a fiction based on the real character of Judge Dee (Ti Jen-chieh or Di Renjie), a magistrate and statesman of the Tang court, who lived roughly 630–700 BC.
Plot introduction
Judge Dee and his four helpers solve the murders of an honored merchant, a master of martial arts, and the wife of a merchant, whose corpse has no head. Judge Dee soon comes under pressure from higher-ranking officials to end his investigation. Judge Dee refuses to give up until he has learned the whole truth.
A nail murder was a motif of crime in ancient China.[1]
The case of the headless corpse was based on an actual 13th-century Chinese murder casebook.
References
- ^ Summers, WC (1999). "The Chinese Nail Murders: Forensic medicine in Imperial China". The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 72 (6): 409–419. PMC 2579034. PMID 11138936.
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- Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee
- The Chinese Maze Murders
- The Chinese Bell Murders
- The Chinese Gold Murders
- The Chinese Lake Murders
- The Chinese Nail Murders
- The Haunted Monastery
- The Red Pavilion
- The Lacquer Screen
- The Emperor's Pearl
- The Willow Pattern
- Murder in Canton
- The Phantom of the Temple
- Judge Dee at Work
- Necklace and Calabash
- Poets and Murder
- Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (2010)
- Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013)
- Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018)
- Amazing Detective Di Renjie (2004)
- Amazing Detective Di Renjie 2 (2006)
- Amazing Detective Di Renjie 3 (2008)
- Mad Detective Di Renjie (2010)
- Young Sherlock (2014)
- Judge Dee's Mystery (2024)
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