About the Author

Robert van Gulik (1910 - 67), a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture, drew his plots and literary conventions from the popular detective novels that appeared in seventeenth-century China.

Reviews

"The China of old, in Mr. van Gulik's skilled hands, comes vividly alive again." - Allen J. Hubin, New York Times Book Review "If you have not yet discovered Judge Dee, I envy you that initial pleasure.... For the magistrate of Poo-yang belongs in that select group headed by Sherlock Holmes." - Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times"