A review by rachelsread
The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee, S.J. Rozan

adventurous informative mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I genuinely wasn't expecting to love this story as much as I did. I was worried it was going to be a knockoff Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson set-up, and to a certain extent, it is - however the so-called Holmes and Watson characters are well-developed and interesting enough to stop the story from feeling like a carbon copy of Doyle's original series. The secondary characters were also fascinating and the plot kept me on the edge of my seat. There were plenty of plot twists as well, which is always a bonus in a murder mystery, and on top of all of that, the novel gave me a perspective I'd never seen before of how Chinese immigrants in England were treated before and after the world war.