PAUL MASON

Paul Mason graduated from Warwick Business School, but immediately turned his back on the world of business, choosing instead literature, education and games. His MA was in Humanities, from California State University. He has written for various magazines, penned seven adventure gamebooks for Puffin, and worked as a consultant for TV production companies, yet at the age of 27 he abruptly left Britain for Japan, where he has lived ever since. In addition to writing, editing, voice acting and translation work, he is a lecturer at a Zen Buddhist university in central Japan. His fascination with Song Dynasty China dates from the early 70s; he has been exploring the period academically and imaginatively for twenty years.

BAO: ABSENT HEADS

Eleventh century China.

A headless corpse is found in parkland. Bao Xing, a young clerk in the district magistrate’s office, becomes embroiled in the investigation.

He thinks it’s his way out of a dead-end job, but instead it leads him up some dark, unexpected alleyways.
He soon discovers that being sincere and well-meaning doesn’t get you very far in pursuit of a maniac, it just gets you beaten up by anyone nursing a grudge, including your boss. Nursing broken bones, Bao Xing learns of a second murder. This time he plunges into the world of the intelligentsia, a world of sexual politics, tangled familial relations and secrets. Once again, things don’t quite work out the way he hoped they would.

Fate intervenes in the shape of another man named Bao, an unsmiling judge dedicated to the eradication of corruption. With Bao Xing’s information, the judge starts to get results, but as the case unfolds, hidden complexities emerge. By the time it is resolved, nine heads have been lost and a festering evil close to the Emperor has been exposed.

Judge Bao is a historical figure, and China’s most celebrated detective. The Bao series puts him back where he belongs: in the Song Dynasty, a time and place remote even from contemporary China, yet tantalisingly modern.

Rights available: World