The Shadow of the Empire

The Shadow of the Empire by Qiu Xiaolong

The Shadow of the Empire is a detective story featuring the legendary Tang Dynasty Chinese detective Judge Dee Renjie. Written in 2021 by Chinese American mystery writer Qiu Xiaolong, The Shadow of the Empire is about a murder case involving a famous poetess and courtesan Xuanji who is accused of killing her maidservant and burying her in the back of the nunnery where she lives. Her simple confession, retrieved by torture, seems to be fabricated and may be a cover up. Judge Dee is asked to look into the real story behind the murder without raising any suspicion. He tells people he is gathering information to publish a book of Xuanji's poetry and that is the reason for his interest.
Di Renjie was a Tang Dynasty politician born in 630 about whom an 18th century Ming Dynasty author wrote a mystery novel that was discovered and translated from the Chinese in the early 20th century by Robert van Gulik, a Dutch orientalist. Van Gulik and others have since written other novels featuring Judge Dee. The Shadow of the Empire is the first of two such novels written by Qiu Xiaolong. There are also Judge Dee TV series, movies and a video game.