A recent murder brings to light a forgotten, decades-old injustice. Weaving together past and present with folktales and ghost stories, the author stokes the overall air of mystery while painting a true-to-life picture of life in Taiwan under autocratic rule during the White Terror period.
The meticulous treatment of the story’s milieu wraps readers in authentic local and historical texture. The narrative, following the decline and destruction of an once wealthy and influential family, artfully tracks Taiwan’s changing fortunes between the late-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries. The rigorous and imaginative treatment given to the two “worlds” of the Yin and Yang and the Taoist magic of the protagonist further fuel reader anticipation about the adventures ahead on the path to solving this long-dead, ostensibly unsolvable case.