British Hong Kong in the 1930s, 1930–1939

During the 1930s Hong Kong remained a British crown colony whose population was overwhelmingly Chinese. Victoria Harbour linked regional shipping, finance and migration, while Chinese merchants, professionals, workers and family associations sustained the city’s economy and social life alongside a small but politically dominant European community.

Colonial law and education operated through racial and class distinctions, and movement between English and Chinese institutions depended heavily on language, wealth and family connections. Political violence and war in mainland China increasingly affected trade and refugee movement as the decade progressed.

A Spoonful of Murder returns Hazel Wong to her prosperous family home in February 1936. The novel uses crowded streets, private detectives, criminal networks and competing legal and family expectations to reverse the English setting of the earlier books: Hazel understands the city, while Daisy becomes the conspicuous outsider.