The Chinese Nail Murders — Robert Hans Van Gulik

Imperial China, T'ang dynasty, seventh century A.D. -- home of Judge Dee, imperial magistrate and detective. A near mythic figure in the pre-Communist Chinese consciousness, Judge Dee distinguished himself as tribunal magistrate, inquisitor, and public avenger. Long after his death, accounts of his exploits were celebrated in Chinese folklore.

The Chinese Nail Murders is one of a series of Judge Dee detective novels written in the 1950s by Robert van Gulik (1910-67), a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. Van Gulik drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century. His Judge Dee stories convey a more vivid insight into traditional China than can be gained from textbooks, monographs, and documents. They provide an atmospheric introduction to life in imperial China at the local level before it was disrupted by external modern forces.