Midnight in Peking · How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China

In the last days of old Peking, where anything goes, can a murderer escape justice?

Peking in 1937 is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, opulence and opium dens, rumors and superstition. The Japanese are encircling the city, and the discovery of Pamela Werner's body sends a shiver through already nervous Peking. Is it the work of a madman? One of the ruthless Japanese soldiers now surrounding the city? Or perhaps the dreaded fox spirits? With the suspect list growing and clues sparse, two detectives—one British and one Chinese—race against the clock to solve the crime before the Japanese invade and Peking as they know it is gone forever. Can they find the killer in time, before the Japanese invade?

Historian and China expert Paul French at last uncovers the truth behind this notorious murder, and offers a rare glimpse of the last days of colonial Peking.

Review“This is a good murder story, well told, with all the additional pleasures that a knowledgeable tour guide to old China can provide. Grateful readers could scarcely ask for more.”  – Joseph Kanon, author of Istanbul Passage, in The Washington Post

“Never less than fascinating… one of the best portraits of between-the-wars China that has yet been written.” – The Wall Street Journal

“A page-turning and fascinating true crime book. This is a genre-breaker that captures the atmosphere of 1930s Peking.” – The Bookseller

“…the most talked-about read in town this year.” – The New Yorker’s Page-Turner Blog

“Midnight in Peking is true-crime writing at its best.” – The Christian Science Monitor

“…A compulsively readable true crime work in the tradition of Devil in the White City.” – The Atlantic.com

“Not only does Mr. French succeed in solving the crime, he resurrects a period that was filled with glitter as well as evil, but was never, as readers will appreciate, known for being dull.” – The Economist

“An engrossing read” – Oprah.com

“In today’s Beijing, French’s portrait feels surprisingly germane.” – The Los Angeles Times

“…Reads like a mystery thriller, with its dramatic cast of character and exotic setting.” – San Francisco Bay Guardian

“…A fascinating tale of life and death in a city on the brink of all-out war.” – Time.com

“[This} fitting elegy to a lost young woman – and era – should help ensure Pamela Werner is a footnote no more.” – The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“French provides a wealth of historical detail about a vanished era in interwar Peking… A well-composed, engaging, lurid tale.” – Kirkus

“Historian French unravels a long-forgotten 1937 murder in this fascinating look at Peking (now Beijing) on the brink of Japanese occupation. French painstakingly reconstructs the crime and depicts the suspects… compelling evidence is coupled with a keen grasp of Chinese history in French’s worthy account.” – Publisher’s Weekly

"Clue by clue, Paul French uncovers the truth of a bizarre murder case that shocked Peking in 1937.  In doing so, he draws a chilling portrait of the city's decadent, violent and overly-privileged Euro-American expatriate community.  It is a feat comparable to that of White Mischief.   Fascinating and irresistible.  I couldn't put it down."  – John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

“Simply marvelous!  An atmospheric who-done-it in which the setting is pre-communist China, incorporating the last tottering edges of the British empire, a cast of enigmatic foreigners, and Peking bracing as Japan invades and brings the last of Old China to its knees.   The mysterious and seemingly motiveless killing of a young English girl by a spirit-haunted gate in Peking is much more than it appears.”  – Margaret George, author of Elizabeth I: A Novel

"The best true crime stories are tales of place as well as people, evoking the long shadows of our often haunted history. And Paul French's book, Midnight in Peking, is among the best...  a  real-life story ultimately as suspenseful as any modern thriller." – Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz-Age New York

“Paul French wonderfully evokes [the] place in that time and, amazingly, manages to bring some sense of closure to this long-forgotten mystery. This book is an instant true crime classic, which grips and hooks from the first page to the last.”  – David Peace, author of The Red Riding Quartet

“Midnight in Peking magically captures a strange, largely unknown time and place in modern history. It is not just a thrilling procedural. It is wise and compassionate and deeply human -- an astonishing achievement.” – Douglas Perry, author of The Girls of Murder City

"This book is captivating, a wild rickshaw ride into the lost world of 1930s Peking—one that plunges down the dark alleys of a murder mystery and into a murky underworld. Paul French's rediscovery of long-hidden leads and witnesses has done justice to this extraordinary case." – Paul Collins, author of The Murder of the Century

“It is the storytelling flair that marks Midnight in Peking so highly above the run-of-the-mill true crime stories: with its false leads and twists, it sucks the reader in like the best fiction.” – The Scotsman

“Part historical docudrama, part tragic opera… [French] tells this sorry tale with the skill of an Agatha Christie.” – The Financial Times

“The shocking true tale, combined with prose you can’t drag yourself away from, makes Midnight in Peking a work of non fiction as compulsive as any bestselling crime novel.” – Sunday Express (UK)

“Spellbinding” – The Guardian

About the AuthorPaul French lives in Shanghai, where he is a business advisor and analyst. He frequently comments on China for the English-speaking press around the world. French studied history, economics, and Mandarin at university and has an M.Phil. in economics from the University of Glasgow.