I was not the intended audience for this book but I could see that it would be appealing to mystery lovers who are interested in London but also older street fighting films. The characters are well thought out and the plot moves along at a steady pace.

A wonderful new rendition of Sherlock and Watson. Whoops. It has the feel of a Sherlock Holmes adventure with quick action sequences and descriptive passages of London. For fans of Sherlock this is a must read!

A delightful who-done-it with a cast of characters that keep you guessing. A reimagined version of the Sherlock/watson friendship, set in post WWI London in the Chinese emigre community. Dee and Lao, along with colleagues and friends are on the trail of a killer who is targeting Chinese members of a tontine, all of whom fought with Dee in the war. Can they solve the mystery before they become the next victims?

Lao She lives a quiet life in London, teaching Mandarin at the University of London and making eyes at the daughter of his landlady, until he gets swept up in a series of murders and general skullduggery in The Murder of Mr. Ma, by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan. Lao She (modeled on the author and scholar of the same name) and his commanding new acquaintance, Judge Dee Ren Jie, take the city by storm.

When he receives a summons from the renowned scholar Bertrand Russell, Lao She hurries off from his lodgings in the hopes of intellectual conversation only to find out that Russell wants his help in springing a friend from jail. Lao She is very reluctant until he learns that the friend is the famous Judge Dee. Dee got caught up in a small riot and needs to get out of jail before his old nemesis, a detective for the Metropolitan Police, finds out he’s there. A little bit of subterfuge frees Dee to resume his original mission: to find out what happened to a Chinese shopkeeper and transport the man’s body back to China for burial.

Nothing is ever simple with Dee, of course, and one murder turns into an entire series for Dee to solve. Lao She volunteers himself to help. His students are terrible at learning Mandarin and he doesn’t have much else to occupy his time; he could use some excitement. Besides, how could he pass up a chance to work with Judge Dee? Together, Judge Dee, Lao She, and another of Dee’s friends (an herbalist named Hoong) rocket around London as they gather clues and question witnesses. There are ample wuxia-style fight scenes that I wish I could see on film. The authors don’t skimp on characterization, either. It was heartbreaking to watch Lao She realize how much he’s been fooling himself about how his British acquaintances really feel about him. Dee’s struggle with opium is similarly heartwrenching. All of this plus a fascinatingly tangled mystery kept my nose firmly buried in this book until its last page.

In The Murder of Mr. Ma authors John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan created a mystery in a very intriguing part of British history for Chinese immigrants not often written about, the post World War I 1920s. Lao She is a college instructor who lives a quiet life in a rooming house until he gets swept up in a murder investigation and meets the somewhat eccentric Judge Dee Ren Jie. Lao and Dee encounter the many prejudices against Chinese people that were prevalent at the time, but they are able to stick to their investigation with aplomb. There are quite a few instances in the novel of martial arts street fighting that read more like a screenplay for a television series/film than a traditional mystery, but some readers who enjoy action scenes will enjoy these interludes. For readers who appreciate a more cerebral investigator who uses his senses, intuition and mental acuity might find the plot lacking in these elements. Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoyable story.

Set in post-WWI London, this fast-paced novel by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan has echoes of the Victorian era of Sherlock Holmes, colorful Bruce Lee films, and real-life historical figures. In a stroke of genius, the authors have brought the fantastical semi-historical character of Judge Dee into the 20th century. The original Judge Dee character, based on the historical figure Di Renjie (c. 630 – c. 700), was a magistrate and statesman of the Tang court and the subject of a number of earlier novels. Welcome to modern times, Judge Dee! Hoping for more after this terrific series review. Thanks to Soho Press for providing an advance reading copy in exchange for a fair review.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Soho Press for an advance copy of the start of a new mystery series that mixes classic detective work, Chinese history, pulp sensibilities, and fun storytelling.

Mixing the golden age of mysteries with pulp men of action stories can create a whole bunch of problems. One can't admire a great brain for figuring out puzzles if he beats the confession out of people. And does one expect Hercule Poirot to start blazing with twin .45s solving the crime of who killed Roger Ackroyd. Miss Marple I could see, but not Poirot. I love both these kinds of stories, the pulp goodness, and a mystery that makes me think and even better makes me go, oh I get it. Add a some martial arts, a bit of history and really great characters and one has a wonderful story. Like The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and S.J. Rozan, a mystery filled with masked men, thinking judges, war guilt, a lot of English racism, and rollicking adventure and derring-do.

The book begins with one of the best meetings of two characters who become investigative partners and later friends that I have read. Original and quite good. The time is 1924 and Lao She is a young academic living in London, lonely in ways, and still getting used to life in England. Lao She is approached by the Bertrand Russell to carry out a small boon for him, which brings Lao She into the orbit of Judge Dee Ren Jie. Judge Dee is a famous Judge in China, and has come to London to determine what happened to a fellow member of the Chinese Labor Corps who served in France during the First World War. Being more familiar with the London scene Lao She attempts to help Judge Dee, but finds that a simple death might hide a more sinister crime. Other members of the same group are being murdered, and the British police seem to have no interest in what is happening. Soon the Judge is taking extraordinary steps to solve these murders, and Lao She is finding himself suddenly not as bored as he once was.

A book that knew little about, but could not put down, as this was so much fun. Not just a good mystery, not just a good pulpy story, but one with a lot of heart, and a lot of history. I knew little of the Chinese role in World War I in Europe, and what those experiences must have been like. In addition I loved the characters. Lao She and Judge Dee are very well written, and the authors have given them much to draw on to explain their actions and why they do the things they do. Even the secondary characters are well-developed, and have clear motivations for what they do. The time period is really well captured, as well as the racism, which is still present I am sure. The mystery is played fair, with clues and no sudden insights the characters have not shared. Plus there is martial arts, and caped crusaders. A lot is going on here.

Recommended for those who like good stories, good mysteries, and good characters having fun, and solving crimes. A really great way to start a series and I look forward to more.

3.5 stars

This was something different. Part historical mystery, set in London in the 1920s, part graphic novel/comic book in tone, with lots of action sequences. There is a whole series of Judge Dee novels which were set in 7th century China and were written in the 50s and 60s. I have not read them so I can't speculate on any relationship between this book and the originals.

Judge Dee has come to London. He was part of the Chinese Labour Corps, a force of workers recruited by the British government in the First World War to free troops for front line duty by performing support work and manual labour. His war experiences left him with what we would now call PTSD and he loses himself in an opium maze to keep the ghosts at bay.

He is a brilliant thinker and fighter and it sounds like gymnast at times. During the fight scenes he leaps on top of furniture, swings from chandeliers, climbs stairs o n the handrail, etc. He is trying to solve the deaths by sword of certain men who he knew from the war. He recruits the help of scholar and university teacher Lao She.

The mystery was interesting and the character interactions are nicely done. An offbeat mystery with some history thrown in. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

In Victorian London, after the war, a group of Chinese men who fought with the British are encouraged to come to England to live. The group is encouraged to set up a tontine, a type of life insurance policy Where all pay an initial sum and the surviving member collects the matured fund. One of the men is murdered, an antique shop owner. Judge Dee, who also served with these men in the war, has left his post in Geneva to make the arrangements to send the body back to his home in China. He decides to investigate the man's murder. He is introduced to a young Chinese man, Mr. Lao, who is a lecturer and professor at the University, who joins him in his investigation. As they are investigating they meet a herbal shopkeeper named Hoong who also served with Dee.Together they work to solve the murder but soon another member of the tontine group is murdered. The also meet Inspector Bard who served with them all in the war.
Slowly the three unravel the mysteries behind the murders in thrilling discourse related by Mr. Lao as the narrator.
This was an enjoyable book. It enlightened the reader on the plight of the Chinese in London in the 1800s, the curse of the opium trade on their lives, and other problems in Britain in this time period.

1920’s London Chinese men try to catch a serial killer targeting Chinese immigrant men. Encountering
a host of different characters and a bit of racism this a fast paced book with similarities to Sherlock Holmes. I look forward to the next book in this series.

In 1924 London, mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell involves professor and novelist Lao She in a daring scheme to free legendary Judge Dee from jail. From there, Lao, narrator of the action, is swept along on Dee's investigation into the murder of a fellow Chinese. A string of similar murders is committed, and Dee and Lao must pursue the killer and avoid becoming victims themselves.

I'm a longtime fan of Rozan's series which alternates viewpoint between PIs Lydia Chin and Bill Smith. I've also read the paranormal series she wrote with Carlos Dews under the pseudonym Sam Cabot. I'm excited for her new collaboration, a heady blend of real-life legends and Sherlockian mystery.

THE MURDER OF MR. MA will be published April 2, 2024. Thanks to Soho Press's Johnny Nguyen for the NetGalley

Lao She is an earnest Chinese academic and hopeful writer, and it's through his carefully recorded observations that we meet the legendary Chinese character, Judge Dee, who draws him into solving the murder of Mr. Ma. Lao is also a Chinese Christian.. I appreciated the respectful way his faith is presented, even as he rebels against the colonial approach he faces from Christians in England. A suitably twisty, multi-layered mystery and fascinating characters make this a thoroughly enjoyable read. Highly recommended for historical mystery fans.

Review based on an eARC received through NetGalley.

I was excited to see S.J. Rozan involved in this collaboration. It's a strange but really fun (and subtly thought-provoking) historical romp set in 1920s London that pairs a Chinese Dr. Watson-style narrator with an impressive Judge Dee - not *that* Judge Dee, but cut from the same cloth as classical Chinese crime stories, a wise outsider who is able to solve crimes and fight bad guys with acrobatic skill; this is somehow paired with a dash of dime novel, but it all works.

The pair investigate the disappearance of a Chinese national who was recruited (like Dee) to provide labor in the battlefields of France during World War I. (Who knew? This is one of those historical lacuna that makes stories like this so enlightening.) They soon are investigating a string of murders while avoiding the interference of a bigoted police officer. There's just enough depth folded into this froth of a story to make it much more than it may seem on the surface.

There are hints Judge Dee will return in future adventures. I'm looking forward to them.

This is a fast, fun read. It's like a Sax Rohmer book without the sadism and racism. In fact, the heroes are Chinese. The Nayland Smith cognate is Dee Ren Jie, a Chinese Judge, detective, and martial artist. Like Smith, he has a chronicler/assistant, in this case a young University lecturer named Lao She. Together they race around 1924 London trying to solve murders and prevent them. There's enough action, mystery, and humor to keep the pages flying.