Midnight in Peking

Peking, January 1937. In the frigid January air, the ancient Fox Tower, rumored to be home to the seductive fox spirits who steal men's souls, keeps silent watch. The Japanese Army is encircling Peking in an ever-tightening noose. The city's population swells daily with refugees from the country, eager to escape the brutality of the Japanese. In the vast city, only two neighborhoods seem to blithely carry on: the Badlands, a warren of cheaply-built buildings and the center of the city's illegal pleasures, including brothels, opium dens, and innumerable bars; and the gilded Legation Quarter, Europe in miniature, home to foreign, white Peking and the glittering Hotel Wagons Lits.

The morning after Russian Orthodox Christmas celebrations, the city awakes to a hangover--and murder. The mutilated body of British school girl Pamela Werner is found at the base of the Fox Tower, on the edge of the Badlands, and the crime sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits? Was it a case of mistaken identity? Who would commit such a brutal crime?

Paul French spent seven years researching this dramatic true story in both Chinese and UK archives. Front page news around the world when it was first reported, MIDNIGHT IN PEKING will acquaint readers with this dramatic crime and its aftermath, and offers a window into the last days of colonial Peking. For fans of history, true crime, and anyone looking for an engrossing read.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Historian PAUL FRENCH lives in Shanghai, where he is a business advisor and analyst. He frequently comments on China for the English-speaking press around the world. He studied history, economics, and Mandarin at university and has an M. Phill in economics from the University of Glasgow. His previous books include Carl Crow: A Tough Old China Hand and Through the Looking Glass: China's Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao.

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