The Adventures of Judge Dee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Dee_stories

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrated_Cases_of_Judge_Dee

Came across these stories completely by accident. Read the book 'Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee' which was quite good. Will write more about Judge Dee later.

Rashmun wrote:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Dee_stories

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrated_Cases_of_Judge_Dee

Came across these stories completely by accident. Read the book 'Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee' which was quite good. Will write more about Judge Dee later.  

Judge Dee is not a fictional character. He was an actual judge living in 7th century China. The stories written about him have been composed much later though .The 'Celebrated Cases' volume is an english translation of a chinese original. These stories are detective stories giving an accurate depiction of the legal system existing in China. It turns out that the judge in China was expected to also fulfill the role of prosecutor and detective although he did have several assistants to help him. In one scene, Judge Dee disguises himself as a physician by virtue of his knowledge of herbal medicines. There are three independent murder cases in this book which Judge Dee solves, and yet this is a novel, and not a collection of short stories. I have not come across a single story in english literature where the detective ends up solving multiple independently occurring murder cases; there might be multiple murders, but somehow these are inter-connected directly or indirectly in all detective stories i have read so far as english literature is concerned. One of the murders is committed by a snake (reminiscent of the Sherlock Holmes stories 'The case of the Speckled Band'; and also 'Silver Blaze' where the murderer is a horse). And another of the murders is committed in a very ingenious way. I was repelled, however, at the injection of a supernatural element in the narrative. For instance, Judge Dee coming across the ghost of one of the victims.