Murder in the Forbidden City

The concept of this book really intrigued me and I actually enjoyed the early parts of it a lot. After the first half I was mentally composing a four-star review. But over the course of the novel so many little issues I had with it kind of snowballed until I was left with a bad taste in my mouth thinking about it.

The book is written very simply and is clearly intended for people who don't know much about Chinese history or culture, so I assumed at first it was aimed at a teen audience, but then all this weird sex stuff started happening and now I am baffled at who the target audience of this was supposed to be. There was also an incredibly silly romance that was really hard to take seriously and looks like it's going to be a cornerstone of the series.

If I'm being honest, Inspector Gong seemed like a completely pointless character and I might have preferred the book to have only focused on Lady Li. The inspector is very glib and weird and somehow gets away with things people are constantly warning him are dangerous. Also so much of the book is just Gong and Li finding the same things out independently and then panicking because they can't contact one another, so even though the book is short a lot of the information is redundant.

In order for the inspector to even be present at the final confrontation, a “mysterious East” plot point of a magical omniscient old lady who knows everything for no reason and then immediately disappears into thin air is required.