Margaret Campbell is a distinguished pathologist specialising in burns but when her personal life falls apart she takes up an offer to leave Chicago and be a guest lecturer in Beijing. Li Yan is a career police officer in China, mentored by his uncle Li has been promoted to a senior role. Three bodies are found in Beijing, a rare thing as Communist China has a low murder rate. However the three must be linked as by each body was found the same clue. Margaret is asked to consult as one body was found burned but as she and Li work together they realise that the crimes may be a cover up for something even more serious.

This is an early novel from May and I had really enjoyed the Lewis Trilogy set in Scotland so was interested to see what his earlier writing was like. The scope of this book is far greater than the later novels and the writing is far more formulaic. It is almost as though May had come up with an idea and written a fairly standard thriller by numbers. However the premise is interesting and the setting in hardline Communist China does throw up lots of opportunities for culture clash