When I came home after vacation, I was unsure what book to pick up from the to-be-read pile. I had my non-fiction read started, but needed something fiction. Something a little less knock-down-drag-em-out on my emotions than The Dragon Republic was. Looking over my bookcase, I came to Jade Dragon Mountain. It was exactly what I wanted. Jade Dragon Mountain is an easy read mystery novel set in 1700s China. Li Du, an exiled librarian, befriends a Jesuit astronomer days before the Emperor’s eclipse festival. The astronomer dies under suspicious circumstances, threatening to send the festival’s schedule into chaos. Li Du suspects there is a great deal more to his friend’s death than meets the eye. His investigation leads him down a harrowing path full of lies, red herrings, and fantastical stories.
“The universal villains, heroes, and clowns have no power if no one recognises them.”
BEAUTY IN SIMPLICITY
Jade Dragon Mountain is not a complicated book, even as the investigation takes a wonderfully winding path. There is something to be said for a book that takes you by the hand and lets you explore its world without waiting for the other shoe to drop. Jade Dragon Mountain is a book I highly recommend as a palate cleanser between hard-hitting emotional books. It’s a necessary type of book, one that even if the mystery is not your style, you’ll still enjoy the beautiful prose.
4/5 stars
-L.J.
“The features that had eluded Li Du were becoming more clear. It was a forger who waited in the shadows, a forger not only of ink and paper, but of worlds. Like painted screens placed in front of a real landscape, these altered realities were moved softly, silently into place.”
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