Book Log 46/2012 - Liz Williams: Precious Dragon

I love Liz William's Inspector Chen books. Chen is a Snake Agent, in the branch of Singapore Three's police force that deals with transgressions in all three realms, Heaven, Earth and Hell. This is the third in the series. Chen and his demon policing partner Zhu Irzh are called away from investigating the disappearance of a girl from the opera to accompany Miss Qi, a Celestial warrior, on a cultural exchange trip from Heaven to Hell. Why Chen and Zhu Irzh? Why now? With Hell things are never what they seem.

There are several story arcs: Chen and Zhu Irzh, of course, as they negotiate not only Hell but Zhu Irzh's overbearing demonic family; Pin from the opera, soon to follow the hapless missing girl to the depths of hell; Embar Dea, the elderly dragon making her final journey; Mrs Pa and her grandson Precious Dragon who - born in Hell and now living on earth - is being hunted by the deadly demonic kuei; Mhara, son of the Celestial Emperor (introduced in the previous book, The Demon and the City); Jhai Tserai, Zhu Irzh's amoral, wealthy industrialist girlfriend, part demon herself, and Inari, Chen's gentle demon wife who has a familiar which is sometimes a badger, sometimes a teakettle. Everything interlinks and the varfious strands together satisfactorily at the end, of course.

This is absorbing, intricate and beautifully written and I'm already itching to get on to the next one, The Shadow Pavilion.