A review by paul_cornelius
Murder in Canton by Robert van Gulik

5.0

Although four more Judge Dee books would follow the publication of Murder in Canton, it is this novel that brings an end to the series chronologically. Here, Dee is once again the Chief Justice for China, as he was in The Willow Pattern. Here, too, there is an utter sense of finality. At the end, Dee's lieutenants are scattered to the wind. Ma Joong is happily married, Tao Gan has asked a young woman to be his First Lady, and Chiao Tai has joined Sergeant Hoong as a victim of Dee's enemies. Even the judge himself has resigned from investigating anymore criminal cases. Aging and tired, he will steel himself to fight the political battles to come, in particular against Empress Wu.

I don't know how much van Gulik's own mortality enters into the somewhat gloomy ending of this novel. For the author had but one more year to live after its publication. Did van Gulik realize his cancer was fatal? Does that overlay this work? Things do seem grim. In fact, Dee disappears from the last chapter. It is as if the world has passed him by.