Judge Dee at Work

Judge Dee at Work

First edition
Author	Robert van Gulik
Series	Judge Dee
Genre	Gong'an fiction, Mystery, Detective novel, Crime
Published	Heinemann
Publication date	1967
Media type	Print
Pages	174
Preceded by	The Phantom of the Temple
Followed by	Necklace and Calabash

Judge Dee at Work is a collection of 8 gong'an detective short stories written by Robert van Gulik and set in Imperial China (roughly speaking the Tang dynasty). It is a fiction based on the real character of Judge Dee (Ti Jen-chieh or Di Renjie), a county magistrate and statesman of the Tang court, who lived roughly 630–700.

The book features eight illustrations by the author.

The book also has a postscript where the author places all the novels and stories into a coherent timeline for his semi-fictional character.

Overview

Judge Dee, a magistrate in Imperial China is a crime solver, a detective. In these stories Judge Dee solves a series of un-related crimes from different times in his career. There is no over-all narrative to these stories.

List of stories

1. "Five Auspicious Clouds" - set in the year 663 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Peng-lai.
2. "The Red Tape Murder" - set in the year 663 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Peng-lai.
3. "He Came With the Rain" - set in the year 663 was a magistrate of Peng-lai.
4. "The Murder on the Lotus Pond" - set in the year 666 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Han-yuan.
5. "The Two Beggars" - set in the year 668 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Poo-yang.
6. "The Wrong Sword" - set in the year 668 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Poo-yang.
7. "The Coffins of the Emperor" - set in the year 670 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Lan-fang.
8. "Murder on New Year's Eve" - set in the year 670 when Judge Dee was a magistrate of Lan-fang.