Midnight in Peking
by Paul French
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
69%
Critic Reviews: 21
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
80%
Reader Ratings: 248
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Synopsis
In the last days of old Peking, where anything goes, can a murderer escape justice? Peking, January 1937. The Legation Quarter, home to wealthy foreigners, glitters with privilege, and scandal and gossip are currency. But as the Japanese are encircling Peking in an ever-tightening noose, the city is on edge. The murder of a beautiful young British woman, her body found brutally mutilated, sends shockwaves through the city. Who could commit such a crime? With... more
About Paul French
- All Critics: 21
- Positive: 16
- Negative: 5
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The Guardian | 8 Jun 2012
Paul French's narrative of the investigation is spellbinding...
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The Telegraph | 30 May 2012
French has an easy-going prose style not best suited to sustaining suspense.
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Time | 30 Apr 2012
The resulting work is 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.
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USA Today | 6 May 2012
Unfortunately French is a careless writer, prone to cliché and moralizing.
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AustCrimeFiction | 11 Jul 2012
MIDNIGHT IN PEKING is really a very fascinating book...
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The Wall Street Journal | 20 Apr 2012
Mr. French's account is never less than fascinating, and it is delivered at the unflagging pace of a rickshaw man's fast trot.
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Denver Post | 17 Jun 2012
This is a good murder story, well told, with all the additional pleasures that a knowledgeable tour guide to old China can provide.
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The Economist | 19 May 2012
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.
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Booking Mama | 10 Jun 2012
...French also provides a portrait of Peking in an exciting and tumultuous time.
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Word Up Nerd Up | 15 May 2012
Paul French does an excellent job of laying out a very complicated story in an interesting and understandable way.
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Neworld Review
The murder hooks you, the investigations and cover ups string you along, and the revelations about the police, culture, and diplomatic relations of that time educate you.
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Pudgy Penguin Perusals | 23 Apr 2012
This type of third person narration with no dialogue occasionally makes for dry reading.
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Aunt Agatha's | 3 Jun 2012
This is a beautifully done and intelligent book.
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Seattle PI | 12 Apr 2012
t is a very convincing analysis, and provides a very satisfying conclusion to the story, a story that reads with all the tension of a fictional thriller.
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Open Letters Monthly
The only readers who’ll be disappointed with it are the poor saps whose books have to measure up to its example in this Hardcover Originals line.
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Book Reporter | 26 Apr 2012
Yet MIDNIGHT IN PEKING grabs the reader from the first paragraph and reads with all the suspense and immediacy of a work of fiction.
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BookBound
Without giving anything away, I can safely say that Midnight in Peking is a fascinating look at what can happen when diplomacy wins over justice…and when it does not.
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A Garden Carried in the Pocket | 14 Jun 2012
The story, the villains, the collusions and deceptions, even the characters are almost more fantastic than fiction.
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Meaghan Walsh Gerard | 23 Apr 2012
And though his research is diligent, there is nothing dry about this book.
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Tara Sharp | 1 May 2012
Historian Paul French puts a bit of a unique twist on True Crime.
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