Shanghai, early 1990s. A badly mutilated body turns up in Shanghai's Bund Park. It bears all the hallmarks of a triad killing.

Then former dancer and party loyalist Wen Liping vanishes in rural China just before she was to leave the country. Her husband, a key witness against a smuggling ring suspected of importing aliens to the US, refuses to testify until she is found and brought to join him in America.

The US immigration agency, convinced that the Chinese government are hiding something, send US Marshal Catherine Rohn to Shanghai to join the investigation.

Inspector Chen, an astute young policeman with twin passions for food and poetry, is under political pressure to find answers fast. When Catherine Rohn joins him he must tread very carefully.

Written by Qiu Xiaolong and dramatised by John Harvey

Starring Jamie Zubairi as Inspector Chen.

Chen ...... Jamie Zubairi
Yu ...... Dan Li
Catherine Rohn ...... Pippa Bennett-Warner
Party Secretary Li ...... Daniel York
Peiqin ...... Sarah Lam
Wen Liping ...... Liz Sutherland
Old Hunter ...... David Hounslow
Qian ...... Caolan McCarthy
Lihua ...... Sam Dale
Qiao ...... Debra Baker
Liu ...... Chris Pavlo

Director: David Hunter

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2015.

Qiu Xiaolong was born in Shanghai, China. As well as writing the award-winning Inspector Chen series of mystery novels, he is also the author of two books of poetry translations, Treasury of Chinese Love Poems (2003) and Evoking T'ang (2007), and his own poetry collection, Lines Around China (2003). Qiu's books have sold over a million copies and have been published in twenty languages. He lives in St. Louis, USA with his wife and daughter. Show less