“See paints a fascinating portrait of a complex and enigmatic society, in which nothing is ever quite as it appears, and of the people, peasant and aristocrat alike, who are bound by its subtle strictures.”
–San Diego Union-Tribune

While David Stark is asked to open a law office in Beijing, his lover, detective Liu Hulan, receives an urgent message from an old friend imploring her to investigate the suspicious death of her daughter, who worked for a toy company about to be sold to David’s new client, Tartan Enterprises.

Despite David’s protests, Hulan goes undercover at the toy factory in the rural village of Da Shui, deep in the heart of China. It is a place that forces Hulan to face a past she has long been running from. Once there, rather than finding answers to the girl’s death, Hulan unearths more questions, all of which point to possible crimes committed by David’s client. Suddenly Hulan and David find themselves on opposing sides: One of them is trying to expose a company and unearth a killer, while the other is ethically bound to protect his client. As pressures mount and danger increases, Hulan and David uncover universal truths about good and evil, right and wrong–and the sometimes subtle lines that distinguish them.

“[See] illuminates tradition and change, Western and Eastern cultural differences. . . . All this in the middle of her thriller which is also about greed, corruption, abuse of the disadvantaged, the desperation of those on the bottom of the food chain, and love.”
–The Tennessean

“Sophisticated . . . graceful . . . See’s picture of contemporary China’s relationship with the United States is aptly played out through her characters.”
–Los Angeles Times

“Immediate, haunting and exquisitely rendered.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

Customer Rating:
Summary: authentic and gripping
Comment: I spent 6 wks in Xian working in a hospital. The rules of etiquette were shocking to me until I caught on. This book mirrored for me the nature of interpersonal interactions as I experienced them in China. The novel felt so authentic that it felt like I had been afforded a trip to the interior of the country that I was unable to accomplish while I was in the country.

The story-line was fascinating and I was caught up almost from the start. The characters were so well drawn that I felt I could actually see them in my mind's eye.

I miss China. Thanks for the trip back there, Lisa See. And thanks for a gripping, terrific tale.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: A banquet for your imagination
Comment: Lisa See guide you with incredible details thru the streets of China and USA. A mistery of inimaginable proportions. Were culture diferences and both goverments, China and USA, manipulates the lives of David Stark and Liu Hulan. Interesting, in this bloody and horrible mystery, a love story is reveiled and make you wonder about love, traditions, cultural revolutions. Two cultures so diferent but how they both have so much in common. The ending is surprising. I most say I couldnt let it go until I finished it.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Comment: Excellant plot, and avoided cliches is trying to otherwise "use" the concept of America and China, men and women in the context of the story. Though on first glance it seems like the story could have been seen before, the writing and development sets it apart. It is a well written engrossing story with well developed characters. This is the first Red Princess Mystery I have read and enjoyed it - I will make sure to look at the others in this

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Nagging Little Detail
Comment: Like the other reviewers, I am a Lisa See fan and I thought this book was great. However, there is one little nagging detail that bothers me. Without giving up the ending, it seems to me that anyone as intelligent as Inspector Liu would have realized how sick she was and gotten herself to a Dr. before she got to the point she did.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: I too am hooked by Lisa See's Red Princess mysteries
Comment: I first read Lisa See's Flower Net and couldn't wait until I read The Interior. Both books are beautifully and complexly plotted with betrayals that one does not see coming but, when they come, seem just right. The complexity of Chinese society, so much that is so positive yet also so much that seems enignmatic and/or corrupt to a Westerner, is conveyed beautifully by having both an American and a Chinese protagonist. The first book dealt with the drug trade (but not a conventional one), the second with entrepreneurial corruption and avarice, as well as with love in a variety of forms. See does not focus just on Beijing but on the countryside, not just on the role of the investigator but also that of the factory worker, not just on those who are prominent in Chinese society but on those who are poor and often exploited, not just on the situation of women but also of men, and, lastly, not just on those who are professionals today but on those who lived during the Cultural Revolution. Both books are long, but I wanted neither to come to an end. Now I look forward to Dragon Bones!

---