A review by samdalefox
Chinese Whispers by Peter May

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The final entry to the China Thriller series! I'm sad it's over, I grew quite attached to Li Yan and Margaret Campbell. I'm glad that this edition also includes the short story 'The Ghost Marriage' because the final book ended very abruptly. I would have been disappointed if that was it for the series. However in the short story, we get a glimpse of the protagonists a few years in the future so we get a sense of how they've settled down and what chocies they've made.
I'm so glad Margaret finally learns to speak Mandarin!
. The short story contains almost the same depth of mystery as the main novels, which shows how succinct the detective part of the story is and how much May focused on Li and Maragret's relationship and including Chinese culture into the main body of the China Thrillers. 

The novel 'Chinese Whispers' was good, and made sense as the final installment since it had a big ramp up on the personal toll the main murder mystery took on the protagnists. However, it didn't feel like a closing book to me and the ending was VERY sudden. I was surprised there wasn't another book afterwards. One point that I think was a particularly nice edition was the time spent on Dai Lao and Li's dad. All in all, another enjoyable edition, and I'm sad to see the series over. 

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