In Beijing, Mei Lang loses her prestigious job at the Ministry for Public Safety because she cannot conform to the rules and edicts of her superiors. Her mother is unable to forgive her for failing again and continues to compare her to her successful sister. Mei's tangled relationship with her mother deteriorates as Mei decides to capitalize on her ability to solve problems and opens the first private investigating office in China.
Mei's first client is Uncle Chen, who asks her to locate a valuable Han Dynasty jade stolen during the Cultural Revolution by Red Guards sweeping away the past. As Mei investigates the jade's past, she exposes China's troubling history and its effect on the destruction of her family. Mei learns that with each past political tide in China, her parents adapted -- and she discovers some disturbing truths about her mother.
Diane Wei Liang's insight into the Chinese culture as she combines it with the universal problems of family and personal relationships makes this an exceptional read. She draws readers into the culture, engages our interest and curiosity while she creates a chilling depiction of Chinese life as Mei solves the mystery in a well-executed plot with a surprising conclusion.
"Having her own detective agency would give her the independence she had always longed for. It would also give her the chance to show those people who shunned her that she could be successful. People were getting rich. They owned property, money, business, and cars. With new freedom and opportunities came new crimes. There would be much that she could do."Present day, Beijing. Mei Wang is a modern, independent woman. She has her own apartment. She owns a car. She has her own business with that most modern of commodities -- a male secretary. Her short career with China's prestigious Ministry for Public Security has given her intimate insight into the complicated and arbitrary world of Beijing's law enforcement. But it is her intuition, curiosity, and her uncanny knack for listening to things said -- and unsaid -- that make Mei Beijing's first successful female private investigator.
Mei is no stranger to the dark side of China. She was six years old when she last saw her father behind the wire fence of one of Mao's remote labor camps. Perhaps as a result, Mei eschews the power plays and cultural mores -- guanxi -- her sister and mother live by...for better and for worse.
Mei's family friend "Uncle" Chen hires her to find a Han dynasty jade of great value: he believes the piece was looted from the Luoyang Museum during the Cultural Revolution -- when the Red Guards swarmed the streets, destroying so many traces of the past -- and that it's currently for sale on the black market. The hunt for the eye of jade leads Mei through banquet halls and back alleys, seedy gambling dens and cheap noodle bars near the Forbidden City. Given the jade's provenance and its journey, Mei knows to treat the investigation as a most delicate matter; she cannot know, however, that this case will force her to delve not only into China's brutal history, but also into her family's dark secrets and into her own tragic separation from the man she loved in equal parts.
The first novel in an exhilarating new detective series, The Eye of Jade is both a thrilling mystery and a sensual and fascinating journey through modern China.
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