The Railway Conspiracy by SJ Rozan and John Shen Yen Nee
Welcome back the dynamic duo, Judge Dee Ren Jie, a lecturer at the University of London, and his sidekick Lao She, a shy scholar, who are China’s version of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson! Brilliant minds, clever disguises and more martial arts moves and Kung Fu fighting than seen in many action films stand ready to entertain the reader.
These superheroes tackle a multinational, sinister cabal in The Railway Conspiracy, a Dee and Lao mystery. Award-winning, fiendishly clever writing partners John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan have followed up last year’s fast-paced, roisterous gem The Murder of Mr. Ma with an even more picaresque, exciting tale of murders, mystery and intrigue.
Heroes and villains from Russia, Japan and China congregate in London to contend for control of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), also known as the Trans-Manchurian Railway. The tale begins with the theft of a priceless mace from Madame Wu, an elegant, beautiful and wealthy businesswoman with whom Judge Dee appears to be enamored. To recover the prized object, a rousing fight ensues, soon followed by the discovery of the murder of a British banking official. The death of a young Chinese Communist days later may be connected.
“The game is afoot!”
A History Rife with Conflict
The Chinese Eastern Railway (with three main branches), providing a vital shortcut and preferred winter route for the Trans-Siberian Railway, was constructed by the Russian Empire from 1897-1902, enabled by a concession granted by Imperial China’s Qing Dynasty. It begins in remote Chita in northern Manchuria and links via Harbin, China, with the Russian port of Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan as well as to Port Arthur, an ice-free port to the south.
Control and privileges were in contention for many years between Russia, China and Japan, creating disturbances and presenting a contributing cause of the Sino-Japanese War that were not fully settled until 1953 when Soviet Russia returned its share to the People’s Republic of China. Attempting to negotiate or, failing that, to seize control by force is at the heart of the plot of The Railway Conspiracy.
Along with controlling the railway, the primary goal of the evil masterminds at the heart of this tale is to reverse the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and reintroduce a new Tsar and restore the empire in China with a new Emperor as head of state, with Japan retaining its current status quo with its established royal dynasty. This would ally the East against the West with strong governments in place. These fanatics will halt at nothing but have underestimated, much to their detriment, the acumen and investigative skills of Judge Dee Ren Jie.
A Sidekick and Numerous Allies
The year is 1924, the time is midsummer and the place is London during the reign of King-Emperor George V, grandson of Queen Victoria, and his wife, Queen Mary of Teck. China’s most esteemed detective, Judge Dee Ren Jie, has returned from travels to his home country and is about to become embroiled in the imminent clash between Nationalist and Communist Chinese.
Evil lurks in the shadows of rank dark alleys and in the gilded parlors of stately homes in Mayfair, where the good Judge, accompanied by his devoted ally Lao She, is equally comfortable. Lao is rather bumble-fingered and awkward, untrained in martial arts combat, but a loyal supporter and boon companion. He is armed with a piercing police whistle to summon the alert Metropolitan Police. His notepad and pens are at the ready to document the course of events for his next book celebrating another case closed thanks to the heroic Judge Dee.
Resembling Doctor Watson, his primary role is to preserve Dee’s legacy as China’s greatest private detective. This fearless crime solver melds unparalleled powers of deduction with traditional Chinese gong’an style.
Dee and Lao’s able assistants include Sergeant Hoong, a highly intelligent martial arts master and former soldier, now herbalist and owner of a curio and antiques shop. The moderately reformed young pickpocket named Jim Finney, aka “Jimmy Fingers,” is ever ready to sample exquisite Chinese teas with Hoong while awaiting assignments from his revered mentor. Constable McCorkle is another ally on the police force, awed by Judge Dee’s bat-like agility and quick mind.
British analytic philosopher, intellectual and logician Bertrand Russell and his lovely wife are welcoming friends and colleagues of Dee and Lao, ready to discuss a case in progress, host soirees or shelter someone in danger. In apparent homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s interest in spiritualism, Judge Dee is guided by the spirit of his mentor, the deceased Commissioner Lin Tse Shu, who appears to him in visions.
Imaginative Homage to Holmes
The action in this puzzling adventure takes place in a graveyard, the parlor of a mansion filled with fragile treasures and on railroad platforms, with one perilous confrontation taking place within the bowels of the London Necropolis Railway based in Waterloo Station. Disused, this line was opened in November 1854 to carry corpses and mourners between London and the London Necropolis Company’s Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, 23 miles distant.
Judge Dee is forced into hiding after being implicated in a bombing at the Sailor’s Palace during the height of the Autumn Moon Festival celebrations. The political upheaval in China after the imperial line was overthrown has heightened the struggle between Nationalists and the Communists for ultimate power. Their fights have spilled far from their borders, with fierce battles raging in London, unobserved by the Metropolitan Police.
Will Judge Dee and Lao She be able to solve the two murders and thwart a ruthless takeover by Zhang Zuo Lin, a hardcore Nationalist who wishes to become a newly crowned Emperor and dictator in China? Sit back, relax and enjoy this wild ride with The Railway Conspiracy.
John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan have added imaginatively to the timeless, enduring legacy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s immortal Sherlock Holmes adventures. All that remains is for them to get back to work and write faster!
John Shen Yen Nee is a half-Chinese, half-Scottish American media executive, producer and entrepreneur who was born in Knoxville, grew up in San Diego, and is now based in Los Angeles, with a penchant for very long run-on sentences. He has served as president of WildStorm Productions, senior vice president of DC Comics, publisher of Marvel Comics, CEO of Cryptozoic Entertainment, and cofounder of CCG Labs.
SJ Rozan is the author of twenty novels and over 80 short stories, and editor of three anthologies. She has won multiple awards, including the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, Macavity; Japanese Maltese Falcon; and the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award. She’s served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and as president of Private Eye Writers of America. SJ has taught at such diverse places as the Art Workshop International in Assisi, Italy; Singapore Management University in Singapore; the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida; and the Novel-in-Progress Bookcamp in Wisconsin. She was born in the Bronx and lives in Manhattan.
