13.67

My recent bedtime reading is 《13-67》 by Chan Ho Kei (陳浩基).

The book is my birthday present from Vivian, who knows too well I am a fan of detective fiction. Chan is a graduate from my alma mater and is, in my wife's own word, the best Hong Kong writer of detection stories.

But, I must say I am always skeptical to all new generation crime fiction authors and do not have high hope on this one. In fact, I was more convinced with my bias after finishing with The Reality Between Black and White (黑與白之間的真實), the first story of this paperback - it's just another version of Agatha Christie's Curtain!

And I am both right and wrong. I could well use Poirot's own words (in The Clocks) to represent my view:

These tales ... are in reality farfetched, full of fallacies and most artificially contrived. But the art of the writing - ah, that is entirely different. The pleasure of the language, the creation above all of that magnificent character (Inspector Kwan in our case). Ah, that was indeed a triumph.