A weekend nonfiction reading review…because even pastors need a break from heavy theological reading!
Paul French. Midnight in Peking. New York, NY: The Penguin Press, April 24th 2012. 260 pp.
5 out of 5
Purchase: Amazon
This is a very fascinating book covering an extraordinary time in history in a fascinating place that involves the unusual phenomenon of “East meets West.” It is 1937 in Beijing (what back then was written in English as “Peking”). The Japanese imperial Army has invaded all over China and they are at the doorsteps of Beijing. In the midst of all the whirlwinds of wars, famines, imperial armies, warlords and corruption there is a murder of a young lady name Pamela Werner that captured the headlines both in China and elsewhere. What makes this murder stands out in the midst of many murders that takes place in the dark corridors of 1930s China is this is a foreigner who is a victim which automatically makes this an international incident. She’s a young schoolgirl. The public interests to this story is compounded with the reality that Werner was the daughter of a former British consulate official who himself is an interesting figure. But most shocking of all is the matter in which her body was mangled. Sometime real life mimics fictional works of mystery and in this story readers will find that the more one digs for the truth the more unusual the twists and turn and the colorful casts of suspects, detectives and other characters.
The Domain for Truth 