Shanghai Noir

Month: October 2017

  • Shanghai Noir

    Today I lay my claim to Shanghai Noir. You could use the term for a film genre, a literary tradition or a thriller set in Old Shanghai. Sounds like my debut novel The Dancing Girl and the Turtle. My novel tells the story of Song Anyi. She’s a rebellious young woman. Soldiers rape and leave […]

  • Peace Court

    Peace Court is the novel I’m working on now. I’m hoping this will be the next volume to appear in The Shanghai Quartet. If you’ve read The Dancing Girl and the Turtle, you may find it hard to believe that my next novel is a comedy. It’s not as if I have no sense of […]

  • Ghost Month

    Throughout Asia, Ghost Month is the moment to commemorate the dead. A good reason to think about ghosts and why they appear in my novel, The Dancing Girl and the Turtle. ancestor worship My novel takes place in Shanghai 1937. Think big band and the foxtrot, opium dens and ballroom dancing. All that jazz as China […]

  • Genesis of a Quartet

    Since the publication of The Dancing Girl and the Turtle, people keep asking me: what’s next? They’re astonished to hear that I’ve got 3 more novels in the works. It’s all part of my master plan to complete The Shanghai Quartet. Was that the idea all along? Far from it. plotters and pantsers In 2011, […]