Death Notice By Zhou Haohui

I have not read any books for the past few months as I have been devoting my time to my online business of selling stamps, currency notes and coins. I was at Popular Bookstore a week or so ago when the book “Death Notice” by Zhou Haohui caught my attention and I bought it on the spot. Three days ago, I started reading it and was able to finish it within two days.

Death Notice by Zhou Haohui

Zhou Haohui had an unfulfilling job teaching engineering at a university outside of Beijing in 2007 when he began publishing — online — the novels that went on to earn him a cult-like following in China. “Death Notice” is the first book in the trilogy; the second and third instalments are “Fate” and “Farewell Song” respectively. The trilogy has sold in excess of 1.2 million copies in China.

Death Notice was published in 2014 by Beijing Times Chinese Press. It was translated to English by Zac Haluza and published in 2018 by Doubleday.

In “Death Notice,” the killer of two outstanding police academy cadets in a gruesome bombing resurfaces after 18 years, this time murdering Sergeant Zheng Haoming, a revered police sergeant whose failure to solve the original case haunted his career. Zheng’s brutal murder sends shock waves through Chengdu, a modern metropolis in the heart of China’s stunning Sichuan province. A special task force is assembled to hunt down the murderer.

The murderer who calls himself Eumenides (after the Greek goddess of vengeance and retribution) releases a terrifying manifesto. Soon, the public starts nominating worthy targets for Eumenides to kill, people who have committed crimes but have gone unpunished.

Before he carries out each of his murder, Eumenides sends a death notice to the police as well as his intended victim,  a chilling note announcing the crime committed by his target and the date of his target’s execution. When the first victim is murdered in a busy public area even though she was under extensive police protection, the police are left stunned. More death notices are coming. A diabolical mouse-and-cat game is on.

The story is compelling and reveals police corruption and the privileges the wealthy in China enjoy. I’ll definitely be looking for the next instalment.