Death of a Red Heroine by Qiu Xiaolong - REVIEW
Death of a Red Heroine is a mystery novel by Chinese-born American author Qiu Xiaolong. Published in the year 2000, Death of a Red Heroine introduces readers to Chief Inspector Chen Cao, the poetry-spouting head of the Shanghai Police Department’s special cases squad.
In Qiu’s first novel, Chief Inspector Chen, and his plucky subordinate Yu, are scratching their heads over the murder of a young woman. The victim, found stuffed in a bin-bag at the bottom of a canal, is a “national worker model”, celebrated for her unwavering work ethic and commitment to the principles of the Communist Party of China. It is up to Chen and Yu to uncover the murky secrets of this crime, and bring the perpetrator to justice.
I am something of a junkie when it comes to prose. For me, the most important aspect of a book is the beauty and quality of its writing. If a novel doesn’t offer engaging prose, then I will find in it little else to enjoy. Now, I don’t crack open a crime novel with the expectation that it’ll be Hamlet, but I do expect the prose to conjure up an atmosphere of suspense and dread. I expect the narrative to do a good job at creating stakes, and making me feel as though it’s imperative that the killer is caught. Otherwise, the mystery should at the very least be perplexing enough that I demand answers. The very best of crime fiction, such as The Hound of the Baskervilles, does both. Death of a Red Heroine, alas, does neither.
The writing is far too simplistic for my tastes. It is plain, unadorned prose that does not even attempt to build suspense or paint an atmosphere. Despite Chief Inspector Chen being a poet, he sees the world in such jejune fashion, stripped of all charm. I feel however that, even if the writing were a little more zhooshed up, I’d be unable to bring myself to care for the central mystery. The plot is incredibly straightforward, and offers very little in the way of twists that would make a reader interested in the crime. I came away not really caring who committed the murder or what their motivation was – a very bad sign in a mystery novel.
The characters also all lacked lustre. There wasn’t a single person in this book that engaged me. This was especially true for the female characters, who lacked even the fractional depth that Qiu provided Chen’s sidekick. Every woman seemed to me like they were in want of a soul, and came across as mere props to furnish the thinness of Qiu’s novel. I actively disliked Chen’s main love interest, who must have been the blandest bitch in all of China. Even the corpse had more personality.
Yet there was still enough good in this book that made me want to keep reading. I loved the allusions to classical Chinese history and poetry woven throughout the narrative. Qiu did a pretty good job educating me about life in Shanghai during the reforms of Deng Xiaoping, a time when socialist China was beginning to open up. Whenever the story moved away from the boring mystery element and moved into the realm of social criticism or references to poetry, I was hooked. Too bad such elements constituted such a small portion of the novel, else I would have rated Death of a Red Heroine much higher. As it stands, however, I can only evaluate Qiu’s first novel as slightly below average.
Rating – 4/10
