SOCIAL SCIENCES

Midnight in Peking

How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China
by Paul French
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China. Penguin. Apr. 2012. c.272p. ISBN 9780143121008. $26. CRIME
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In January 1937, the mutilated body of Pamela Werner was found on the outskirts of old Peking (Beijing). After an unsuccessful investigation into the slaughter of this 19-year-old English expatriate, the case was eventually closed and forgotten as World War II escalated in China. Now Shanghai-based business analyst and historian French (Through the Looking Glass: China's Foreign Journalists from Opium Wars to Mao) reopens the cold case and attempts to bring some justice to Pamela's memory in this skillfully told true-crime thriller. French writes a remarkably coherent narrative by stringing together details from official police reports, newspaper articles, interviews, and, perhaps most helpful, E.T.C. Werner's report from his personal investigation into his daughter's horrific murder.
VERDICT Treating his subjects with expertise and compassion, French creates a riveting portrait of the complicated tensions that existed during wartime in a city on the brink of destruction. As he slowly unravels the clues, he reveals a crime more shocking than anyone had ever imagined. This is a difficult book to put down! Recommended for readers interested in detective novels, Chinese history, and everything in between.
Reviewed by Rebekah Wallin, Paris, France , Mar 15, 2012
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