"the opening scene carries out the "in medias res" advice: a beautiful young girl in dishabille is arranging an old man's corpse to look like accidental death. the next brings on judge dee, in his usual philosophizing mood and flanked by the faithful chiao tai as they discuss the plague-stricken, half-deserted city. in the heat of summer, dee has to discover the motive and agent of three murders, each separate but also related. typically good van gulik."