Jade and Fire

About the Book

Peking, winter 1948. Encircled by Mao's Communist armies, Nationalist warlord Fu Tsoyi seeks the solution to saving Peking in his Taoist concubine's lessons in calligraphy and passion. Chief Inspector Bei wrestles with a string of brutal courtesan murders, slowly realizing with horror that the solution to the murders is tied to saving his beloved Peking, and China's emergence into the modern world.

About the Author

Raymond Barnett, a Chinese history major at Yale, spent a year in wartime Vietnam, then earned his biology Ph.D. at Duke. While teaching biology at Chico State University for three decades, he remained fascinated with Asia, traveling extensively in China, Taiwan, and Japan. He lives with his wife and two youngest children in a Co-housing community in Chico, CA.