The Murder of Mr. Ma

British Chinese narrator Daniel York Loh immerses listeners in Rozan (Family Business) and debut author Nee’s action-packed series starter, set in 1924 London and featuring two unlikely sleuths, judge Dee Ren Jie and University of London lecturer Lao She. With a playful nod to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, the authors present the Holmesian Dee, with acute observational skills and an addiction to opium, and his occasionally perplexed but good-hearted companion Lao. The two find themselves in the middle of a troubling case involving the murders of Chinese men who served with Dee as part of the Chinese Labour Corps in the Great War. Loh expertly communicates an atmospherically described London, including Chinese antiquities shops, seedy opium establishments, and the parlors of the landed gentry. With a superb command of accents, he deftly captures Dee’s codeswitching as he shifts from broadly conversational tones to the refined voice of a posh English gentleman. Secondary characters are voiced with equal precision, including a memorable depiction of Springheel Jack, “the Terror of London,” and young pickpocket Jimmy Fingers.