Jade Dragon Mountain

A Novel

De: Elsa Hart

Narrado por: David Shih

On the mountainous border of China and Tibet in 1708, a detective must learn what a killer already knows: that empires rise and fall on the strength of the stories they tell.

Li Du was an imperial librarian. Now he is an exile. Arriving in Dayan, the last Chinese town before the Tibetan border, he is surprised to find it teeming with travelers, soldiers, and merchants. All have come for a spectacle unprecedented in this remote province: an eclipse of the sun commanded by the emperor himself.

When a Jesuit astronomer is found murdered in the home of the local magistrate, blame is hastily placed on Tibetan bandits. But Li Du suspects this was no random killing. Everyone has secrets: the ambitious magistrate, the powerful consort, the bitter servant, the irreproachable secretary, the East India Company merchant, the nervous missionary, and the traveling storyteller who can't keep his own story straight.

Beyond the sloping roofs and festival banners, Li Du can see the mountain pass that will take him out of China forever. He must choose whether to leave and embrace his exile or to stay and investigate a murder that the town of Dayan seems all too willing to forget.

©2015 Elsa Hart (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

Great Story

Great story, setting, characters and narration. A clever detective story. I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book and will seek out more from this author.

excellent

I really enjoyed this book. Fascinating from a historical aspect and thrilling from a mystery aspect

Terrible narration obscures the story

How could the performance have been better?

The performance is dreadful. Some characters unlistenable.

Any additional comments?

The author is done a terrible injustice with the awful narration.

Excellent

this was a delightfully written and narrated mystery. The connection with a culture unknown to me was also delightful.

Not much to the story

The history is rich and interesting but the story, to me, is predictable and flat.

Hooked me right from the beginning

I rarely leave written reviews, but this book is such a standout that it is deserving of one.

I fell in love with this book and was sorry when it ended. From the very beginning I was engaged, no slow parts, the set-up of each character was clear right from the beginning and they developed into distinct personalities. While spacing between chapters was pretty short, it wasn’t hard to figure out. There were a few times I was a little confused, but that’s because I was distracted and once refocused, everything fell back into place. This story was unique and I wanted to stay in that world much longer than the book lasted.

I highly recommend this book.

More than one mystery

A murder was presented that needed to be solved. After the murderer had been caught, there were still several mysteries to be unraveled. The climax of a murder mystery novel is usually the apprehension of the murderer, but it was not the only high point in this story, nor was it by far the last. If you enjoy mysteries that are steeped in complexity, then this will likely be a treasured addition to your library.

Enthralling!

This story brings to live a country and an era. The characters are not only believable, but very real.

enjoyable with a different kind of time and settin

First time author for me, debut novel for the author. I'm a fan of murder mysteries in general. This book is a bit different in that it's set on the Chinese/Tibetan border in the 1700's, not your everyday setting. The author lived in this city where the book takes place. The author and her family lived in several different international settings before she ended up going to Swarthmore and started writing books.

While not a taut thriller like many murder mysteries, this was a slower moving book that built on the Chinese customs of the time. There is political intrigue, explanations of Chinese things of the time, and Le Du, the main charater, works his mysstery at a methodical pace. Listening to the Chinese cultural aspects of the time was as interesting as listening to the mystery unfold.

I like trying different authors, it was highly rated (4.4 on the audible 5.0 scale) and had good reviews, so I decided to give it a shot and I enjoyed it. At this time this is the only book by this author on audible.

Just too slow for me

Liked it...didn't love it. Great narration. Good characters. Enjoy the history lesson of the time and location.