The Eye of Jade

I love books set in China and books with a female main character, which is just what Diane Wei Liang's mystery novel The Eye of Jade includes. The story is set in present day Beijing and Mei Wang is a single woman who runs her own private investigation business. Mei's uncle comes to her for help in finding a valuable Han dynasty jade, which he believes was looted from the Beijing Museum during the Cultural Revolution and is now being sold on the black market. Sounds interesting, right? Well, it's not nearly as good as I had hoped. The mystery of the jade does not come up until well into the book. The beginning is mainly comprised of Mei's background-how she got to be in business for herself and her strained relationships with her mother and her sister. When the mystery of the jade does finally come up, it is slow going at first and never really gains much momentum. What I enjoyed was the description of life in Beijing and life in a Communist country: the struggles to achieve success and wealth, the difficulties when one doesn't conform, Mei's choice to remain single and run her own business, and the obstacles she faces. The story of Mei's past in a labor camp and the subsequent effect it has on her relationship with her mother is also a very interesting part of the story and would have made a good story on its own.