In the fourth installment of Robert Van Gulik\'s ancient Chinese mystery series based on historical court records, Detective Judge Dee is appointed to the magistrate of Pei-chow -- a distant frontier district in the barren north of the ancient Chinese Empire.
And even more curious, the crim.
It is here that he is faced with three strange and disturbing crimes: the theft of precious jewels, the disappearance of a girl in love, and the fiendish murder involving the nude, headless body of a woman.
In the fourth installment of Robert Van Gulik\'s ancient Chinese mystery series based on historical court records, Detective Judge Dee is appointed to the magistrate of Pei-chow -- a distant frontier district in the barren north of the ancient Chinese Empire
