Poets and Murder

by Robert Van Gulik Book 4 in the Judge Dee Mysteries series.

First published 1968

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During the Mid-Autumn Festival at Chin-hwa, Judge Dee joins a gathering of scholars that includes a celebrated poetess, a Zen monk renowned for calligraphy and a former president of the imperial academy. A student is found dead amid rumours of a fox demon, and a young dancer is murdered before she can perform for the guests.

Dee follows the cases from academic households and a high-class brothel to the shrine of the Black Fox, uncovering passions and betrayals that began many years earlier. Poetry, reputation and superstition become part of an investigation in which cultivated appearances repeatedly conceal very ordinary motives for violence.