Li Du Novels Series
Written by Elsa Hart
Narrated by David Shih
4/5
()
About this series
Following the enthralling 18th century Chinese mysteries Jade Dragon Mountain and White Mirror, comes Elsa Hart's next Li Du adventure in City of Ink.
Li Du was prepared to travel anywhere in the world except for one place: home. But to unravel the mystery that surrounds his mentor’s execution, that’s exactly where he must go.
Plunged into the painful memories and teeming streets of Beijing, Li Du obtains a humble clerkship that offers anonymity and access to the records he needs. He is beginning to make progress when his search for answers buried in the past is interrupted by murder in the present.
The wife of a local factory owner is found dead, along with a man who appears to have been her lover, and the most likely suspect is the husband. But what Li Du’s superiors at the North Borough Office are willing to accept as a crime of passion strikes Li Du as something more calculated. As past and present intertwine, Li Du’s investigations reveal that many of Beijing’s residents — foreign and Chinese, artisan and official, scholar and soldier — have secrets they would kill to protect.
When the threats begin, Li Du must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice to discover the truth in a city bent on concealing it, a city where the stroke of a brush on paper can alter the past, change the future, prolong a life, or end one.
Praise for City of Ink:
"As always, Hart excels at making even walk-on characters fully realized and at combining a gripping whodunit plot with a vivid evocation of the period. This entry solidifies her status as a top-notch historical mystery author." — Publishers Weekly
"Rich in period detail, a sharply rendered exotic setting, and a web of well-crafted plots, Li Du’s third novel will appeal to fans of historical mysteries by Lisa See, Laura Joh Rowland, and Abir Mukherjee." — Booklist
Titles in the series (3)
- Jade Dragon Mountain: A Mystery
1
On the mountainous border of China and Tibet in 1708, a detective must learn what a killer already knows: that empires rise and fall on the strength of the stories they tell. Li Du was an imperial librarian. Now he is an exile. Arriving in Dayan, the last Chinese town before the Tibetan border, he is surprised to find it teeming with travelers, soldiers, and merchants. All have come for a spectacle unprecedented in this remote province: an eclipse of the sun commanded by the Emperor himself. When a Jesuit astronomer is found murdered in the home of the local magistrate, blame is hastily placed on Tibetan bandits. But Li Du suspects this was no random killing. Everyone has secrets: the ambitious magistrate, the powerful consort, the bitter servant, the irreproachable secretary, the East India Company merchant, the nervous missionary, and the traveling storyteller who can't keep his own story straight. Beyond the sloping roofs and festival banners, Li Du can see the mountain pass that will take him out of China forever. He must choose whether to leave, and embrace his exile, or to stay, and investigate a murder that the town of Dayan seems all too willing to forget.
- The White Mirror: A Mystery
2
"Narrator David Shih...keeps his enunciation even and crisp, teasing out the clues as this tale, intricate as a tapestry, begins to unravel its secrets." — AudioFile Magazine In The White Mirror, the follow-up to Elsa Hart’s critically acclaimed debut, Jade Dragon Mountain, Li Du, an imperial librarian and former exile in 18th century China, is now an independent traveler. He is journeying with a trade caravan bound for Lhasa when a detour brings them to a valley hidden between mountain passes. On the icy planks of a wooden bridge, a monk sits in contemplation. Closer inspection reveals that the monk is dead, apparently of a self-inflicted wound. His robes are rent, revealing a strange symbol painted on his chest. When the rain turns to snow, the caravan is forced to seek hospitality from the local lord while they wait for the storm to pass. The dead monk, Li Du soon learns, was a reclusive painter. According to the family, his bizarre suicide is not surprising, given his obsession with the demon world. But Li Du is convinced that all is not as it seems. Why did the caravan leader detour to this particular valley? Why does the lord’s heir sleep in the barn like a servant? And who is the mysterious woman traveling through the mountain wilds? Trapped in the snow, surrounded by secrets and an unexplained grief that haunts the manor, Li Du cannot distract himself from memories he’s tried to leave behind. As he discovers irrefutable evidence of the painter’s murder and pieces together the dark circumstances of his death, Li Du must face the reason he will not go home and, ultimately, the reason why he must.
- City of Ink: A Mystery
3
Following the enthralling 18th century Chinese mysteries Jade Dragon Mountain and White Mirror, comes Elsa Hart's next Li Du adventure in City of Ink. Li Du was prepared to travel anywhere in the world except for one place: home. But to unravel the mystery that surrounds his mentor’s execution, that’s exactly where he must go. Plunged into the painful memories and teeming streets of Beijing, Li Du obtains a humble clerkship that offers anonymity and access to the records he needs. He is beginning to make progress when his search for answers buried in the past is interrupted by murder in the present. The wife of a local factory owner is found dead, along with a man who appears to have been her lover, and the most likely suspect is the husband. But what Li Du’s superiors at the North Borough Office are willing to accept as a crime of passion strikes Li Du as something more calculated. As past and present intertwine, Li Du’s investigations reveal that many of Beijing’s residents — foreign and Chinese, artisan and official, scholar and soldier — have secrets they would kill to protect. When the threats begin, Li Du must decide how much he is willing to sacrifice to discover the truth in a city bent on concealing it, a city where the stroke of a brush on paper can alter the past, change the future, prolong a life, or end one. Praise for City of Ink: "As always, Hart excels at making even walk-on characters fully realized and at combining a gripping whodunit plot with a vivid evocation of the period. This entry solidifies her status as a top-notch historical mystery author." — Publishers Weekly "Rich in period detail, a sharply rendered exotic setting, and a web of well-crafted plots, Li Du’s third novel will appeal to fans of historical mysteries by Lisa See, Laura Joh Rowland, and Abir Mukherjee." — Booklist
Elsa Hart
Elsa Hart is the author of several acclaimed mystery novels set in eighteenth-century China, including City of Ink, one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2018. She was born in Rome, but her earliest memories are of Moscow, where her family lived until 1991. Since then she has lived in the Czech Republic, the U.S.A., and China. She earned a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.
Related to Li Du Novels
Related audiobooks
The Promised Lie: The Unwritten Words I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe China Bride Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Don't Call the Wolf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Death of an English Muffin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outcasts of Poker Flat: and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCharming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Imperial Agent: Digitally Narrated Using a Synthesized Voice Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This Scepter'd Isle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Under the Diehard Brand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ice: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Highlander Untamed: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPale Fallen Angel Parts Three and Four [Dramatized Adaptation]: Vampire Hunter D 12 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dimiter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The White Mirror: A Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture in the House (Unabridged) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wilde in Love: The Wildes of Lindow Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Moon-Bog Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrook o' Lune Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deverry: Books 1-4 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Pair of Blue Eyes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wind in the Portico Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood on the Divide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jade Dragon Mountain: A Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Retrieved: The Shapeshifter's Library #2 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder through the Mirror: A completely addictive 1920s historical cozy mystery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shakespeare Sisters: An emotional and absolutely unputdownable WW2 historical romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy Kill the Innocent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Historical Mystery For You
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bone Rattler: A Mystery of Colonial America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enchanted Hill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The ABC Murders: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Curious Beginning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shutter Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Librarian of Crooked Lane: The Glass Library, book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Echo of Old Books: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eye of the Raven Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5T. H. Elkman: A Western Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tread of Angels Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Curse of the Brimstone Contract Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Socialite's Guide to Murder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White Lady: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lady in the Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crime and Punishment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watchmaker's Daughter: Glass And Steele, Book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder by Degrees: A Mystery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood of the Oak: A Mystery of Revolutionary America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Impossible Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things in Jars: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil and the Dark Water Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lavender House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Murder at the Mayfair Hotel: Cleopatra Fox Mysteries, book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Botanist's Guide to Flowers and Fatality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Original Death: A Mystery of Colonial America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related categories
Reviews for Li Du Novels
80 ratings0 reviews