Summary: Publisher Summary 1 The great Chinese detective Judge Dee begins work on the most disquieting case of his career when he reviews the rape murder on Half Moon Street   Publisher Summary 2 The Chinese Bell Murdersdescribes the Judge's exploits in the tribunal of Poo-yang early in his career. He has one case left over from his predecessor鈥攖he brutal rape-murder of Pure Jade, the daughter of Butcher Hsai who lived on Half Moon Street. Her lover has been accused and is on the verge of being convicted, but Judge Dee senses that all is not right and sets out with his lieutenants to find the real murderer. "So scrupulously in the classic Chinese manner yet so nicely equipped with everything to satisfy the modern reader."鈥擭ew York Times Robert Van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. He drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially from the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century.   Publisher Summary 3 The Chinese Bell Murdersdescribes the Judge's exploits in the tribunal of Poo-yang early in his career. He has one case left over from his predecessor--the brutal rape-murder of Pure Jade, the daughter of Butcher Hsai who lived on Half Moon Street. Her lover has been accused and is on the verge of being convicted, but Judge Dee senses that all is not right and sets out with his lieutenants to find the real murderer. "So scrupulously in the classic Chinese manner yet so nicely equipped with everything to satisfy the modern reader."--New York Times Robert Van Gulik (1910-67) was a Dutch diplomat and an authority on Chinese history and culture. He drew his plots from the whole body of Chinese literature, especially from the popular detective novels that first appeared in the seventeenth century.