The Missing Shanghai is the first (and so far the only) novel by Peter May I read. Located in China, and more specifically in the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, the book is an opportunity for the reader to form an image of the country a little more realistic and varied as the idealized images often conveyed. We finally discovered it without surprise that, as in all countries, it is impossible to escape the collusion between political and financial power. The ambitions of each other can be summarized as to lead, make money and have a good time, this obviously to the detriment of ordinary lives. This is the cruel lesson that will have to learn both the player (if he was still ignorant) that the policeman Li Yan, come to Beijing to investigate the discovery of 19 bodies horribly mutilated in a site of the city. This is an opportunity for him to meet his female counterpart of the Shanghai police, the charming Mei Ling, who in addition to sharing its culture, does not leave indifferent. Only his lover, American forensic Margaret Campbell, also associated with the investigation, does not intend to make her steal lover without reacting. The war between the two women is so declared when they met. The love story is inserted and with the progress of the investigation but in truth neither one nor the other has succeeded in totally excited about. It lacks a little something that would have shocked me, breathless, surprised.
Some passages are very successful (dinner in Mei Ling's parents, the character of the medical student) and all reads quickly, without being bored. The style of the author (as the translation makes it anyway) is relatively mat and does not give additional strength to the novel. The characters are neither lovable nor particularly repulsive. It lacks a spark to give their lives completely. After closing the book, we do not think about them.
Reading the Disappeared in Shanghai, I was not surprised, I did not make a great literary discovery. I read a good mystery novel set in an original setting that will probably leave me no lasting memories.
PS: a lot of shells in the text sometimes make reading a bit complicated. Sometimes lack of words, sentence fragments and a decimal error in a figure makes a wrong calculation purported to show an irrefutable truth.
