Discontinued; unappealing.
Plot is slow moving; characters are poorly drawn and generally unpleasant. ( )

Nice dynamics between infuriating but interesting characters. Great descriptive work and sheer pace hide what I perceive as obvious plot holes. ( )

A burned corpse in a park in Beijing is the beginning of a strange mystery for Beijing detective Li Yan and forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell. Together they must work out who the man is if it was suicide or murder. And if it was murder, who would want to kill him? Since they got on the wrong foot with each other at the first meeting must they also find a way to work together without frictions with is easier said than done.

Peter May's Lewis trilogy is one that I truly enjoyed reading so I was quite eager to read The Firemaker when I got the chance to it. It was very interesting to read about Beijing. This is I'm quite sure the first crime book I have read that takes place in Beijing and the difference in the way of life there to ours in the west is fascinating. Peter May begin the book with telling the reader about his journey to China and his great interest in the country. And, I can tell that in the book with the details and how well he was written about the cultural difference between China and the west.

Margaret Campbell has left America to get away from some personal problems and she is absolutely not ready for the cultural shock that she is in for in Beijing. She should have read up more about what to do and what not to do before she sat foot in Beijing, but she didn't and that means that right from the start is she upsetting pretty much everyone. You know when you tell someone what not to do and the person instead go ahead and do it? Yup, that's Margaret Campbell in this book. For instance, the first time Margaret met Li Yan she makes him lose face. And, it just goes downhill from that one...

Still they and up working together and, despite their first annoyance with each other is there a spark between them and the more they work together, well let's say that they find each other quite acceptable towards the end.

The case with the burned body was an interesting one, unfortunately, I came to feel that it took forever to get somewhere with it. The book is pretty thick and the investigation was a bit slow and sometimes during the middle and towards the end that I feel almost a bit of desperation for the story to get somewhere. And, then finally, the investigation started to take off and then it took a horrible turn for Li Yan and Margaret.

So, in the end, the case was interesting, but the book felt a bit slow now and then. I did, however, like Li Yan and Margaret quite well. Sure Margaret's overbearing attitude was a bit annoying, but she started to respect the Chinese culture more and more towards the end of the book.

I want to thank the publisher for providing me with a free copy for an honest review! ( )

Feels about as authentic as Big Trouble in Little China. The bizarre GMO fearmongering is the cherry on top. How is this a mystery novel? It's a mystery how it manages to combine generic with preposterous. It pretty much sets up the "reveal" in the first chapter and there's little else in the book beyond the usual Chinese cliches so I was thoroughly disappointed by the end. ( )

Perhaps I came to this with unreasonable expectations: I loved May's Lewis trilogy.

Here, he goes even further out of the way: to China. Good idea. But straight black hair and a Chinese name does not a Chinese make.

After a good 40-50 pages at the beginning of the novel, in which the cultural differences between China and the west are explored, as soon as the police investigation proper begins, suddenly it is as if none of this had ever been: we are presented with any old cop in Chinese clothing. Nothing of the police procedural that follows seems even remotely connected to the context established in the opening chapters.

Furthermore, May insists on telling, not showing. Huge chunks of dialogue are used to present the author's research, whether of feng shui, 'saving face', autopsies, whatever.

May even seems to acknowledge this inadequacy by referring explicitly to 'lectures' given by characters who are 'smug' - but the impression given is either that May doesn't mind his characters looking stupid (bad), or that he can't be bothered to write properly (worse), or that he thinks his audience is stupid (worst of all). I mean, the passage where the ethics of GM crops are discussed would disgrace a sixth-form debating society.

Nor are the characters worth following: Margaret Campbell is insultingly sketchily drawn, and unpleasant with it. The fact that she's suffering a mysterious heartache which has driven her to China is simply not enough.

Sorry to rant, but I'd really been looking forward to this. And it's just rubbish. ( )