Murder in Canton. This fifth novel of the New Series I wrote
in Kuala Lumpur,winter 1961-spring 1962. Since I meant this
to be really the last Judge Dee novel,I cast about for an
entirely new setting,and a new kind of plot. I decided to
take,now for the first time,an actual Chinese city as the
scene of action,and chose Canton with its Arab colony,so
that I could utilize my experiences gained during my
stay in the Middle East.This novel necessitated much his-
torical research;some of my notes are found in the green
writing-book appended to the ms. Far from being written in
one session,this novel was written laboriously bit by bit,
and the composition suffered.I tried to incorporate far too
much source-material,which clutters up the tale,and retard-
ed the action.The reviewers,apparently impressed by the
quaint historical details - including the Chinese views on
other Asiatics - were kind in their judgement,but perso-
nally I think this novel does not come up to the standard
of the three preceding ones. I had disposed of Sergeant
Hoong in The Chinese Nail Murders, and in this last novel I
had killed Chiao Tai.Ma Joong I had left out in Murder in
Canton,because I thought his presence would further com-
plicate ths action;in view of his amorous disposition,I
mentioned casually that he had settled down to domestic
life,having married twin-sisters. This casual remark gave me the
idea for the next novel,The Willow Pattern.