I am grateful to blogger extraordinaire Jen Forbus for coming up with the brilliant idea of dedicating this week to a study of detectives around the world. By reading the blog authors who took part, I've found a lot of interesting new detective characters whose books are being added to my ever-growing pile of books to be read.
I'm also gratified by the number of people who have come here to learn more about Robert Van Gulik's Judge Dee books, set in seventh-century imperial China. A lot of readers have indicated they'd like to read some of the books. Fortunately, I see from Amazon.com that all of the Judge Dee books are currently in print, which means they're readily available, whether you use my Amazon link or ask your favorite mystery bookseller to get one for you.
There are sixteen books - fourteen novels, one book containing two novellas, and one collection of eight short stories. Unlike many other mystery series, there is no need to read the Judge Dee books in any particular order. If you'd like to get an idea of the chronology of Judge Dee's career, Wikipedia has a chart, but you will notice that the books were not written according to the order of that chronology.
If you like, you can listen to my podcast reviews of three - including my favorite, "Necklace and Calabash," which was one of the last books Van Gulik wrote. The links go directly to my podcasts:
I'll review more of the Judge Dee mysteries on future podcasts.
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