Paperback: Chief Inspector Chen Cao, of the Shanghai Police Department, is taking a vacation at a private resort near the once-legendary Tai Lake.
Inspector Chen arrives to find the lake, renowned for its clear waters, all but covered by fetid algae, polluted by toxic runoff from local manufacturing plants.
When the director of one of the plants responsible for the pollution - a man from whom Beijing expects "bigger things" - is found murdered, the police arrest a local environmental activist for the crime.
Drawn into the case by a young woman connected to both the victim and the accused, Inspector Chen has to tread carefully.
Surrounded by corruption, party politics, and long-buried resentments, Chen must unearth the truth behind the brutal murder if he is to find a measure of justice for everyone involved.
About the author: Qiu Xiaolong is a poet and author of several previous novels featuring Inspector Chen, as well as Years of Red Dust, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2010. Born and raised in Shanghai, the Cultural Revolution began in his last year of elementary school, and out of school, out of job, he studied English by himself in a local park. In 1977, he began his studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai, and then the Chinese Academy of Social Science in Beijing. In 1988, he came to Washington University in St. Louis, U.S. as a Ford foundation fellow to do a project on Eliot, but after the Tiananmen tragedy of 1989, he decided to stay on. He lives with his family in St Louis, Missouri. Qiu's Inspector Chen series is a many-faceted study of contemporary China.
Don't Cry, Tai Lake (2012) is the seventh book in the Inspector Chen novel series set in China and addresses the issue of the polluted lakes and rivers in China.
Rating: 5/5
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