'A brilliantly evocative book.' The Sunday Age Read moreĪn instant true crime classic which grips and hooks from the first page to the last. French's re-creation of the police investigation will have you enthralled.' Sydney Morning Herald Seventy-five years after these events, Paul French finally gives the case the resolution it was denied, in a story that will make you hold your loves ones close. Even as the Japanese noose on the city tightens, this bizarre murder transfixes the people of Peking. It belongs to the daughter of a former British consul, and when the details of her death become known, people find it hard to credit that any human could treat another in such a fashion. Then one bitterly cold night, the body of an innocent mortal is dumped there. Locals believe it to be haunted by fox spirits that prey upon innocent mortals. Fear reigns inside the ancient city walls, on one of which, not far from the nefarious Badlands, is a massive watchtower. Japanese troops are poised to attack, and word has it the Chinese government is about to cut a deal with Tokyo, leaving Peking to its fate.

In the exclusive Legation Quarter, the foreigners are jumpy. January, 1937: Peking is a heady mix of privilege and scandal, lavish cocktail bars and opium dens, warlords and corruption, rumours and superstition – and the clock is ticking down on all of it. Midnight in Peking is the unputdownable true story of a murder that will make you hold your loved ones close, and also a sweepingly evocative account of the end of an era.

Midnight in peking