Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China

by Paul French Narrated by Erik Singer

Overview

In the last days of old Peking, where anything goes, can a murderer escape justice?

Peking in 1937 is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, opulence and opium dens, rumors and superstition. The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner's body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits? With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives-one British and one Chinese-race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?

Historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind this notorious murder, and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial Peking.

Editorial Reviews

AUGUST 2012 - AudioFile

Erik Singer narrates a fascinating account of the investigation of the shocking murder of a young Englishwoman, Pamela Werner, set against the backdrop of Peking, a city at a crossroads in 1937, with the Japanese poised to occupy China. Singer's performance is evocative as he transports listeners to the setting of Old China, with its privileged expatriate community and its dignified legations, and its vice-ridden Badlands, rife with prostitution and opium dens. The account of Pamela's brutal murder and her father's search for justice is gripping, capturing a colorful array of characters both foreign and local. Singer allows the material to speak for itself, moving the story forward seamlessly and shedding light on a China of times past. S.E.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

The Washington Post

…not only an entertaining read but a plausible account of Werner's last night…Midnight in Peking has all the sturdy virtues of a classic whodunit—the baffling crime, the blind-alley clues, the lucky chance encounter—and to French's credit, he follows the steady unfolding of the case as it happened, layer by layer…This is a good murder story, well told, with all the additional pleasures that a knowledgeable tour guide to old China can provide. Grateful readers could scarcely ask for more.
—Joseph Kanon

Publishers Weekly

Historian French (Through the Looking Glass: China’s Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao) unravels a long-forgotten 1937 murder in this fascinating look at Peking (now Beijing) on the brink of Japanese occupation. The severely mutilated body of 19-year-old Pamela Werner—the adopted daughter of noted Sinologist and longtime Peking resident Edward Werner—was discovered, with many of her organs removed, near the border between the Badlands, a warren of alleyways full of brothels and opium dens, and the Legation Quarter, where Peking’s foreign set resided in luxury. A case immediately fraught with tension was made even trickier when the local detective, Col. Han Shih-ching, was made to work alongside Scotland Yard–trained Richard Dennis, based in Tientsin. The investigation soon stalled: the actual scene of Pamela’s murder could not be found, and leads fizzled out. As China’s attention turned to the looming Japanese occupation, the case was deemed “unsolved.” French painstakingly reconstructs the crime and depicts the suspects—using Werner’s own independent research, conducted after authorities refused to reopen his daughter’s case. Compelling evidence is coupled with a keen grasp of Chinese history in French’s worthy account. (May)

From the Publisher

This is a good murder story, well told, with all the additional pleasures that a knowledgeable tour guide to old China can provide. Grateful readers could scarcely ask for more.”  – Joseph Kanon, author of Istanbul Passage, in The Washington Post

“Never less than fascinating… one of the best portraits of between-the-wars China that has yet been written.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Midnight in Peking is both a detective story and a social history, and therefore – as it should – always keeps the hunt for Pamela’s killers somewhere near the center of the narrative. [Paul French] is a wonderfully dexterous guide” – Jonathan Spence in The New York Review of Books

“A crime story set among sweeping events is reminiscent of Graham Greene, particularly The Third Man, while French's terse, tightly-focussed style has rightly been compared to Chandler. Midnight in Peking deserves a place alongside both these masters.” – The Independent

“A page-turning and fascinating true crime book. This is a genre-breaker that captures the atmosphere of 1930s Peking.” – The Bookseller [selected as One to Watch]

“…the most talked-about read in town this year.” – The New Yorker’s Page-Turner Blog

“Midnight in Peking is true-crime writing at its best, full of vivid characters, an exotic locale, secrets galore, and a truly bewildering mystery.” – The Christian Science Monitor

“…A compulsively readable true crime work in the tradition of Devil in the White City.” – The Atlantic.com

“Not only does Mr. French succeed in solving the crime, he resurrects a period that was filled with glitter as well as evil, but was never, as readers will appreciate, known for being dull.” – The Economist

“An engrossing read” – Oprah.com

“In today’s Beijing, French’s portrait feels surprisingly germane.” – The Los Angeles Times

“Part historical docudrama, part tragic opera… [French] tells this sorry tale with the skill of an Agatha Christie.” – The Financial Times

Library Journal

In January 1937, the mutilated body of Pamela Werner was found on the outskirts of old Peking (Beijing). After an unsuccessful investigation into the slaughter of this 19-year-old English expatriate, the case was eventually closed and forgotten as World War II escalated in China. Now Shanghai-based business analyst and historian French (Through the Looking Glass: China's Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao) reopens the cold case and attempts to bring some justice to Pamela's memory in this skillfully told true-crime thriller. French writes a remarkably coherent narrative by stringing together details from official police reports, newspaper articles, interviews, and, perhaps most helpful, E.T.C. Werner's report from his personal investigation into his daughter's horrific murder. VERDICT Treating his subjects with expertise and compassion, French creates a riveting portrait of the complicated tensions that existed during wartime in a city on the brink of destruction. As he slowly unravels the clues, he reveals a crime more shocking than anyone had ever imagined. This is a difficult book to put down! Recommended for readers interested in detective novels, Chinese history, and everything in between.—Rebekah Wallin, Paris, France

AUGUST 2012 - AudioFile

Erik Singer narrates a fascinating account of the investigation of the shocking murder of a young Englishwoman, Pamela Werner, set against the backdrop of Peking, a city at a crossroads in 1937, with the Japanese poised to occupy China. Singer's performance is evocative as he transports listeners to the setting of Old China, with its privileged expatriate community and its dignified legations, and its vice-ridden Badlands, rife with prostitution and opium dens. The account of Pamela's brutal murder and her father's search for justice is gripping, capturing a colorful array of characters both foreign and local. Singer allows the material to speak for itself, moving the story forward seamlessly and shedding light on a China of times past. S.E.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

A suspenseful murder mystery set on the eve of the Japanese invasion of old Peking in 1937. In this deft reconstruction of events from newspaper and police reports, diaries and archives, Shanghai-based historian French (Through the Looking Glass: China's Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao, 2009, etc.) masterly portrays the graft-ridden milieu of pre–World War II China, where the arrogance of foreigners prevailed. The horribly mutilated body of a young woman, later identified as British schoolgirl Pamela Werner, was discovered at Fox Tower in Peking, on Jan. 8, 1937, to the shock of the foreign community. Initially, French pursues the official Chinese and British police angle, offering a grisly autopsy report and discussions of suspects such as Pamela's father, ETC Werner, an old China hand and former British consul. Detectives discovered that Pamela had been ice-skating with her girlfriend the night before and failed to make it home on her bicycle by dinnertime, as she had promised her father and cook. Compelling details emerge about the attractive young woman. She was scheduled to leave her school and return to England soon because of untoward advances made by her professor, and she had been courted by several men her father had disapproved of. Still, the official inquest stalled, Peking fell to the Japanese and the case petered out, except that Pamela's father doggedly took over, offering a reward and hiring his own detectives. Having long lived in Peking, Werner sensed that such a murder had not been committed by Chinese, but by the foreigners who congregated at the watering hole the Grand Hotel des Wagons Lits, and they were not telling the truth. French provides a wealth of historical detail about a vanished era in interwar Peking. A well-composed, engaging, lurid tale.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169147490
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	04/24/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,075,748

Read an Excerpt

The eastern section of old Peking has been dominated since the fifteenth century by a looming watchtower, built as part of the Tartar Wall to protect the city from invaders. Known as the Fox Tower, it was believed to be haunted by fox spirits, a superstition that meant the place was deserted at night.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Midnight in Peking"
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