When the mutilated and dismembered bodies of eighteen women are discovered in a mass grave in Shanghai, Li is sent to establish if the corpses relate to an unsolved murder in Beijing, and finds the most horrifying catalogue of killings ever uncovered in the Middle Kingdom. Once more, Margaret's mercurial relationship with Li threatens their professional collaboration. Margaret, having just suffered the heartbreak of burying her father, arrives in Shanghai to find her partnership with Li threatened by another woman. Born in the Year of the Tiger, Mei-Ling seems to have her claws firmly fixed in Li. How can Margaret, a mere foreign devil, compete with Mei-Ling, deputy head of Shanghai's serious crime squad? But when it becomes clear that the murdered women have been subjected to live autopsies, the three realize they are tracking a monster. And the closer they get to this ruthlessly cold-blooded killer, the closer they come to realizing their own personal nightmares.

Author Biography

Peter May won the Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award at 21 and had his first novel published at 26. He went on to become a successful Scottish television dramatist. He lives in France with his wife Janice Halley.