A Perfect Crime

On a normal day in provincial China, a bored high-school student goes about his regular business. But he’s planning the brutal murder of his only friend, a talented violinist. He invites her round, strangles her, stuffs her body into a washing machine and flees town. On the run, he is initially anxious, but soon he alerts the police to his whereabouts, surrenders to undercover agents in a pool bar, and sabotages all efforts by China’s judiciary system, a steady stream of psychologists and his family to overturn the death penalty, all without ever showing a shred of remorse. A Perfect Crime is both a vision of China’s heart of darkness — the despair that traps the rural poor and the incoherent rage lurking behind their phlegmatic front — and a technically brilliant excursion into the claustrophobic realm of classic horror and suspense. With exceptional tonal control, A Yi steadily reveals the psychological backstory that enables us to make sense of the story’s dramatic violence and provides chillingly apt insights into the psychology behind a murder committed simply as an intellectual challenge to relieve the daily tedium of existence. Detective and Mystery Fiction,China A chilling literary thriller about a motiveless murder in provincial China 'One of the most important voices to emerge from the People's Republic in years' Daily Express On a normal day in provincial China, a teenager goes about his regular business, but he's also planning the brutal murder of his only friend. He lures her over, strangles her, stuffs her body into the washing machine and flees town, whereupon a perilous game of cat-and-mouse begins. A shocking investigation into the despair that traps the rural poor as well as a technically brilliant excursion into the claustrophobic realm of classic horror and suspense, A Perfect Crime is a thrilling and stylish novel about a motiveless murder that echoes Kafka's absurdism, Camus' nihilism and Dostoyevsky's depravity. With exceptional tonal control, A Yi steadily reveals the psychological backstory that enables us to make sense of the story's dramatic violence and provides chillingly apt insights into a country on the cusp of enormous social, political and economic change. On a normal day in provincial China, a bored high-school student goes about his regular business. But he's planning the brutal murder of his only friend, a talented violinist. He invites her over, strangles her, stuffs her body into a washing machine and flees town. On the run, he is initially anxious, but soon he alerts the police as to his whereabouts, surrenders to undercover agents in a pool bar, and sabotages all efforts by China's judiciary system, a steady stream of psychologists and his family to overturn the death penalty, all without ever showing a shred of remorse On A Normal Day In Provincial China, A Teenager Goes About His Regular Business, But He's Also Planning The Brutal Murder Of His Only Friend... A Yi ; Translated By Anna Holmwood. Original Title: Mao He Lao Shu Published In Chinese In 2012 As Xia Mian, Wo Gai Gan Xie Shen Me