The Abbot Jade Mirror is dead. His embalmed body sits enthroned in the ancient Taoist Monastery of the Morning Cloud; the doors to his crypt are barred against inquisitive eyes. On the day of his death, fifteen monks were called to his chambers to hear a mystical sermon on the truth of the Tao. Fifteen astonished monks witnessed as he finished his ecstatic sermon and died. The monks called it a supernatural mystical experience. But Judge Dee called it murder and knew that somewhere in the monastery a, a killer was waiting...

In The Haunted Monastery, Judge Dee and his wives seek refuge from a violent mountain storm and are plunged into a bizarre series of interrelated crimes. Three women have been murdered in the monastery; Dee has seen something impossible, perhaps supernatural, and inexplicable events flash forth in the dark tangle of corridors and the Taoist Hell—a hall filled with statuary showing realistically the torments of Hell.

A mysterious garden maze; a hidden message in a scroll painting; a ruthless robber lord who has decreed Dee's death; a hidden murderer with a penchant for torturing and killing women are among the problems which Dee encounters and solves in The Chinese Maze Murders.

These two Chinese detective novels were written by the late Dr. Robert Van Gulik, orientalist and diplomat, as further fictional adventures of the renowned Judge Dee, a historical magistrate and statesman of seventh-century T'ang China. Accurate in their background, thrilling, imaginative, original, Van Gulik's novels have been most highly regarded by critics of the detective story.

Condition: Pre-loved book. In good condition.

Format: Paperback
Year published: 1977
Pages: 328
Sub-genre: Historical fiction, mystery
Imprint: Dover