• Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2018 June #1
  *Starred Review* After six years of exile, Li Du (The White Mirror, 2016) has returned to a much different Beijing than the one he left in 1705: the Qing emperor has tightened security by expelling Ming aristocrats from the inner city and closing the imperial library where Li Du once worked. Now, as assistant to the North Borough's Chief Inspector Sun, Li Du finds his responsibilities leaning toward paper shuffling. But when Pan, a powerful Minister of Rites official, and Madame Hong, wife of the Black Tile Factory's owner, are murdered in the factory's office, Li Du is tasked with investigating. Li Du's superiors decree that Madame Hong's husband committed the murders in a jealous rage, taking his apparent prison suicide as a confession. Unconvinced, Li Du unravels a web of corruption, revealing motives among Beijing's most respected ministers, Jesuit priests, and the flood of hopeful students in Beijing for civil-service exams. At the same time, Li Du recruits help from his adventuring storyteller friend, Hamza, to finally exonerate his mentor, Shu, of guilt in the assassination plot that resulted in his execution and Li Du's exile. Rich in period detail, a sharply rendered exotic setting, and a web of well-crafted plots, Li Du's third novel will appeal to fans of historical mysteries by Lisa See, Laura Joh Rowland, and Abir Mukherjee. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

ELSA HART was born in Rome, Italy, but her earliest memories are of Moscow, where her family lived until 1991. Since then she has lived in the Czech Republic, the U.S.A., and China. She earned a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. City of Ink is her third novel.