Death Notice – A Fairly Entertaining Chinese Crime Fiction that Lacks Finesse and Depth

Published in China in 2014 and sold over 1 million copies, Zhou Haohui’s crime thriller fiction, Death Notice was translated to English in 2018 (by Zac Haluza) and enjoyed great reception in the US, reserved in the recent years to high octane Scandinavian and Japanese crime fictions. Death Notice is the first installment in a trilogy of novels, which follows a team of detectives attempt to track down a highly intelligent vigilante, carrying the code name Eumenides (deities of vengeance in Greek mythology), who sends death notices to people he thinks have slipped through the hands of law.

The novel is set in the city of Chengdu in the year 2002. Eighteen years earlier (in 1984), police sergeant Zheng Haoming was part of a covert task force that investigated the murders of then Vice-Commissioner of Chengdu police, Xue Dalin and two police academy students. The students perished in an explosion, whereas the Vice-Commissioner was murdered in cold-blood. Death notices were found at the crime scene; the executor mentioning the punished ones’ crimes. The task force, however, has failed to nab the criminal and the crimes weren’t repeated. But in 2002, Zheng receives an anonymous message that makes him feel the killer has returned.

Few days later, Zheng is lying in a pool of blood, his throat slashed. He is found by Pei Tao, a captain stationed at a small county named Longzhou. Pei has received a message from Zheng, urging him to meet Zheng at his house. Interestingly, Pei like Zheng was connected to the 1984 murders. Initially a suspect, Pei was friends with the two students who died in the bomb explosion; one his lover Meng, and the other his best friend Yuan. The official version is that having first seen the death notice issued toYuan, Meng rushed to rescue him. While trying to defuse the bomb strapped to Yuan at an abandoned warehouse, they both died. However, there are few discrepancies and mysteries surrounding the case that has haunted Pei’s mind forever.

Meanwhile, the task force set to hunt down Eumenides is reformed, now headed by Captain Han Hou. Pei is also part of the team alongside Special Police Unit (SPU) captain Xiong, a geeky technology expert, and a gifted plus beautiful psychologist Mu Jinayun. This time around Eumenides get bold and start to directly challenge the police force. Unlike the 1984 murders, the vigilante gives his death notice in advance. He names the victim, their crimes, and the date he is gonna commit the act. Considering the resources at their disposal, the task force wonders about the validity of these notices. But they soon witness their enemies’ formidable nature and the meticulousness of his/her plans. As Eumenides’ elaborate plan for delivering justice begins to unfold the police just get stringed along.

The thrills of Death Notice are well conceived, although the language feels too cliched or unappealing at times (don’t know if the problem lies with translation). The novel doesn’t offer much of crime fiction tourism as in the novels of Keigo Higashino, Hideo Yokoyama, Jo Nesbo, Arnaldur Indridason, etc. The cultural descriptions are largely absent and social commentary rears its head now-and-then in the book with the story alternating between pent-houses of the rich and the dirty shacks of the poor. Nevertheless, the social commentary isn’t very specific to China. The justification provided by vigilante for his actions is very common and lacks depth (emotional or intellectual). 

Death Notice has got intriguing set-pieces. We feel the thrill when the police are left to run like the rat in a maze. But the revealed truths weren’t as convincing, since much of the characters here aren’t developed a bit. Everyone from Pei to Mu just remain as functional characters throughout. They do good bit of detective work, but there’s nothing to make us root for their survival. The logic and motive of the killer is also underdeveloped and sounds ridiculous.

Overall, Death Notice had a great start that made me wonder when the next two sequels will be released in English, but the later-half of the novel got rid of this eager anticipation I had for the sequels (still I hope the sequels are really good).