A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel

Murder, Money, and an Epic Power Struggle in China

By: Pin Ho, Wenguang Huang

Narrated by: James Chen

The downfall of Bo Xilai in China was more than a darkly thrilling mystery. It revealed a cataclysmic internal power struggle between Communist Party factions, one that reached all the way to China’s new president Xi Jinping.

The scandalous story of the corruption of the Bo Xilai family - the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood; Bo’s secret lovers; the secret maneuverings of Bo’s supporters; the hasty trial and sentencing of Gu Kailai, Bo’s wife - was just the first rumble of a seismic power struggle that continues to rock the very foundation of China’s all-powerful Communist Party. By the time it is over, the machinations in Beijing and throughout the country that began with Bo’s fall could affect China’s economic development and disrupt the world’s political and economic order.

Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang have pieced together the details of this fascinating political drama from firsthand reporting and an unrivaled array of sources, some very high in the Chinese government. This was the first scandal in China to play out in the international media - details were leaked, sometimes invented, to non-Chinese news outlets as part of the power plays that rippled through the government. The attempt to manipulate the Western media, especially, was a fundamental dimension to the story, and one that affected some of the early reporting.

A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel returns to the scene of the crime and shows not only what happened in Room 1605 but how the threat of the story was every bit as important in the life and death struggle for power that followed. It touched celebrities and billionaires and redrew the cast of the new leadership of the Communist Party. The ghost of Neil Heywood haunts China to this day.

©2013 Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang (P)2014 Audible Inc.

If you are a Sinophile…

Insightful. Great analysis and synthesis of various voices and interpretations of events. Beyond Bo, it offers insight into many of the top leaders in China since Mao.

An inside Account of the Murder Of Neil Heywood

Unfortunately, the Western media seldom publishes detailed accounts of the power struggles in the Communist Party in China. I found this book to be fascinating in the way it filled in the blanks in the Western media accounts of the corruption and power struggles in the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 and 2013. Bo Xilai seemed to be on his way to the top of the Communist Party but that changed rapidly after the death of Neil Heywood and the internal political struggles that followed.

I enjoyed this book and hope that the authors can provide additional books on the political activities of the Communist Party leaders.

Extremely satisfying and comprehensive

This book was so much deeper and more detailed than I expected. What a satisfying read! I was looking for something about the Bo Xilai incident, an event which already seems outlandish on the surface. The outline of the story is well-known - English man found dead of apparent poisoning in a backwater hotel in central China in 2011; wife of rising political star Bo Xilai is implicated and eventually found guilty; rising political star sidelined. Oh, that's all? Of course I wanted to know more.

Ho and Huang's book begins with the familiar story, then separates the players into concentric circles, going into the biographies of everyone involved. For some readers, this may be offtrack and excess to the plot. But, as the title implies, the book is about the struggle for power and control in a changing China. And it does not disappoint. The authors explore the predicament of post-revolutionary China, hemmed in by generational "royalty" as the sons and daughters of Mao-era notables evolve into a new type of elite class. The details are fascinating and at times salacious, but they create a kind of family tree revealing the impact of a relatively small cast of characters in the post-Mao era. The authors indicate sources seamlessly within the narrative, which I really appreciate - as a reader, you can parse the relative credibility as you go.

Among the takeaways - Bo Xilai was taking bribes into the billions (yes, billions!) of RMB, oversaw the state execution of hundreds of the guilty and innocent alike, yet is still a folk hero to the populace in Chong Qing. Bo Xilai's fall from power ultimately made the way for Xi Jinping's ascendency. And current Party Secretary Xi Jinping lived in a cave for seven years. I know it reads like a script from Game of Thrones, but if you are interested in Chinese history or current events (or a context with which to view Xi Jinping), then you will love this book.

The narrator James Chen is fantastic - clearly a speaker of Chinese so that names are pronounced properly, how refreshing.

Entertaining but unnecessarily long

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Some of the time was well-spent, I suppose, but the book seemed far too long -- padded out with details that were unnecessary to the plot and in some instances irrelevant.

Would you ever listen to anything by Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang again?

Maybe.

What three words best describe James Chen’s voice?

Neutral, well-paced.

Do you think A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. Nothing sufficiently incomplete or interesting to warrant follow-up.