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

Quotes

• “[A] fascinating thriller/true-crime story…There’s an unexpected pleasure that comes from knowing that after all these years, the truth has finally come to light.”

  — O, The Oprah Magazine

• “A fascinating tale of life and death in a city on the brink of all-out war, a world of corruption, hubris, brutality, and madness…A deeply engrossing tale that offers fresh insights into pre-war Peking and a measure of justice for a young woman whose life was cut tragically short.”

  — Time

• “Engrossing…French’s account is never less than fascinating, and it is delivered at the unflagging pace of a rickshaw man’s fast trot…One of the best portraits of between-the-wars China that has yet been written.”

  — Wall Street Journal

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

  — Financial Times

• “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.”

  — Economist

• “Fascinating…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.”

  — Publishers Weekly

• “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…Singer allows the material to speak for itself, moving the story forward seamlessly and shedding light on a China of times past.”

  — AudioFile

• “French’s narrative keeps the reader tightly gripped by and emotionally involved with the dead daughter and her obstreperous but determined father, who, after officials closed the case unsolved, pressed for the truth in his own remarkable inquiry. A fine true-crime narrative with crossover appeal to mystery mavens.”

  — Booklist

• “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!”

  — Library Journal

• “French provides a wealth of historical detail about a vanished era in interwar Peking. A well-composed, engaging, lurid tale.”

  — Kirkus Reviews