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Alex Soong #1
[(Emperors Once More)] [By (author) Duncan Jepson] published on
Hong Kong, August 2017.On the eve of a crisis summit for world economic leaders, two Chinese Methodist ministers are killed in an apparently motiveless execution in Hong Kong's financial district. Luck makes Detective Alex Soong one of the first officers at the scene.Yet Soong begins to suspect his involvement to be more than incidental, and the crime itself more than a senseless an instinct that is proven correct when Soong is contacted by a mysterious figure, and more massacres follow.With the eyes of the world's media fixed on Hong Kong, Soong must race to intercept his tormentor, and thwart a conspiracy born from one of the bloodiest confrontations of China's past, which now threatens to destroy a fragile world order.
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First published March 6, 2014
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138 people want to read
About the author
Duncan Jepson
4 books34 followersDuncan Jepson is the award-winning director, producer and writer of five feature films. He also produced documentaries for Discovery Channel Asia and National Geographic Channel. He was the editor of the Asia-based fashion magazine West East and a founder and managing editor of Asia Literary Review. He is a social commentator on Asia and regularly writes for The New York Times, Publishing Perspectives and South China Morning Post. A lawyer by profession, he lives in Hong Kong.
His first novel, All the Flowers in Shanghai was a bestseller. He also co-storied the graphic novel, Darkness outside the Night with Xie Peng and is currently writing a crime series due to be published by Quercus. The first title, Emperors Once More will be published in March 2014.
For details of charities that Duncan runs:
www.libertyasia.org
www.facebook.com/ProjectShare
Duncan Jepson is represented by Peony Literary Agency
His first novel, All the Flowers in Shanghai was a bestseller. He also co-storied the graphic novel, Darkness outside the Night with Xie Peng and is currently writing a crime series due to be published by Quercus. The first title, Emperors Once More will be published in March 2014.
For details of charities that Duncan runs:
www.libertyasia.org
www.facebook.com/ProjectShare
Duncan Jepson is represented by Peony Literary Agency
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 24, 2014
This was a quite engaging thriller set in near future Hong Kong. I did enjoy it though I felt that it suffered at times from uneven pacing due to quite a lot of exposition about Chinese politics. Still, this was necessary in order to explain the motivations of the baddies to someone like myself who has little appreciation of Chinese history.
Pacing aside, certainly the last few chapters had me gripped and unable to put the book down as the plot came together. I am not quite sure why it was set in near future though this did allow for speculation about upcoming political and economic changes that could take place given present day economics.
Duncan Jepson is a Hong Kong based journalist and documentary film-maker. This is his first venture into crime fiction and it appears he has woven into it his interests about the meeting of cultures in Hong Kong as well as its history. This is meant to be the start of a new series and I will be keeping an eye out for further novels in the series.
Pacing aside, certainly the last few chapters had me gripped and unable to put the book down as the plot came together. I am not quite sure why it was set in near future though this did allow for speculation about upcoming political and economic changes that could take place given present day economics.
Duncan Jepson is a Hong Kong based journalist and documentary film-maker. This is his first venture into crime fiction and it appears he has woven into it his interests about the meeting of cultures in Hong Kong as well as its history. This is meant to be the start of a new series and I will be keeping an eye out for further novels in the series.
July 12, 2022
I was pleasantly surprised that in addition to, and perhaps even more than, a pretty good detective thriller with a unique plot-line, Emperors Once More gave an amazing broad-stroke view into the political and domestic history of China going back to the Boxer Rebellion and beyond and tying it all together and melding it with astute insight into the interlocking 'mainland'/Hong Kong status and world view and positioning.
October 6, 2014
I am very pleased to have won a copy of this book through Goodreads' First Reads. The opening chapter of this book had me absolutely gripped; it was intense, it was exciting, it was full of action. Unfortunately, most of the thrill dropped out after that and didn't pick up again until the last few chapters.
This book is long. Not long as in, it is a lengthy text over a vast amount of pages, but long as in it meanders about, stopping to point out needless details and not really showing any real sign of direction. It's a shame because it had so much potential. That isn't to say it is a a bad book; I still enjoyed it and will probably pick up the sequels when they come out. I just won't necessarily be rushing out to do so, or putting them at the top of my 'to read' list.
I think part of the problem with the book is it is rather political in nature. This isn't necessarily a negative, if you have a mind for politics, but if you do not it certainly feels like it drags. Furthermore, most of the politics are Chinese (obviously, being set in China), with a basis in Chinese history. Again, this isn't necessarily problematic, but being European a lot of this is unknown to me and I do not feel that the novel does justice in explaining it. Perhaps this is an issue with my own gaps of knowledge, but I would rather that the novel had explained more of the culture that it was set in. (For example, I had to Google what 'trigrams', or bagua, were.)
I could tell from early on that this was going to be a book with a twist, with something unexpected. I was half right. While full of mystery, I felt it was a little to heavy handed on the clues it scattered throughout the narrative and easily foresaw the ending. I pieced together the relationships and identities of certain characters long before it was ever explicitly mentioned, which made the 'reveals' seem... Lacking in both the shock and glee that they warranted.
Overall? It was a good book. I liked it, hence, a three star rating. Would I recommend it? Probably. It's far from the worst thriller or police detective novel I have ever read. It just wasn't the best either.
This book is long. Not long as in, it is a lengthy text over a vast amount of pages, but long as in it meanders about, stopping to point out needless details and not really showing any real sign of direction. It's a shame because it had so much potential. That isn't to say it is a a bad book; I still enjoyed it and will probably pick up the sequels when they come out. I just won't necessarily be rushing out to do so, or putting them at the top of my 'to read' list.
I think part of the problem with the book is it is rather political in nature. This isn't necessarily a negative, if you have a mind for politics, but if you do not it certainly feels like it drags. Furthermore, most of the politics are Chinese (obviously, being set in China), with a basis in Chinese history. Again, this isn't necessarily problematic, but being European a lot of this is unknown to me and I do not feel that the novel does justice in explaining it. Perhaps this is an issue with my own gaps of knowledge, but I would rather that the novel had explained more of the culture that it was set in. (For example, I had to Google what 'trigrams', or bagua, were.)
I could tell from early on that this was going to be a book with a twist, with something unexpected. I was half right. While full of mystery, I felt it was a little to heavy handed on the clues it scattered throughout the narrative and easily foresaw the ending. I pieced together the relationships and identities of certain characters long before it was ever explicitly mentioned, which made the 'reveals' seem... Lacking in both the shock and glee that they warranted.
Overall? It was a good book. I liked it, hence, a three star rating. Would I recommend it? Probably. It's far from the worst thriller or police detective novel I have ever read. It just wasn't the best either.
March 14, 2014
Just won this in the Goodreads Giveaway, cannot wait to start reading it.
Review to come.
UPDATE: 14/03/14
Wow, I think that is the only word I can use to sum up this book. I cannot remember the last time I had read a book that had me this engrossed. I wont mention anything that happens in case I might spoil it for people, but Duncan Jepson is an author to watch, our lead; Alex Soong is a riveting lead much more preferable than the washed out Robert Langdon.
The writing is extremely good, and gives the perception that the author has done their research well which I always enjoy when reading a book even though it gets kind of confusing at some parts, but that's what makes it a mystery/thriller. I found it very refreshing that this novel is set in China unlike most that always feature the US. this book had me anxiously turning the pages to get to the end, this is a crime novel at its best.
Review to come.
UPDATE: 14/03/14
Wow, I think that is the only word I can use to sum up this book. I cannot remember the last time I had read a book that had me this engrossed. I wont mention anything that happens in case I might spoil it for people, but Duncan Jepson is an author to watch, our lead; Alex Soong is a riveting lead much more preferable than the washed out Robert Langdon.
The writing is extremely good, and gives the perception that the author has done their research well which I always enjoy when reading a book even though it gets kind of confusing at some parts, but that's what makes it a mystery/thriller. I found it very refreshing that this novel is set in China unlike most that always feature the US. this book had me anxiously turning the pages to get to the end, this is a crime novel at its best.
March 2, 2014
A real page turner set in a slightly dystopic near future, in the context of worsening Chinese and Western relations, juxtaposed against the history of East West relations. Great setting and compelling characters, can't for the next.
July 5, 2017
Well written, and I liked all the references to Hong Kong geography. Having lived there for four years in the early 2000's, it was fun to relive the past.
A good whodunit but I was taken aback at what I thought was an unnecessarily gory scenario. It just doesn't ring true to me that anybody would do this. It smacks of sensationalism to me.
Other than that, good thriller/mystery set in Hong Kong.
A good whodunit but I was taken aback at what I thought was an unnecessarily gory scenario. It just doesn't ring true to me that anybody would do this. It smacks of sensationalism to me.
Other than that, good thriller/mystery set in Hong Kong.
October 20, 2024
okay I DID NOT LIKE the almost romance between two characters who end up being SIBLINGS?!? YOU GUYS?!?!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 17, 2017
It's a good book that sucks you in and makes you want to follow Alex's struggle until the end. Duncan paints quite a vivid picture of the situation that Alex faced and the internal struggle he went through. That is one of the attractive points of this book. Though, perhaps since I'm not very familiar with Chinese history, the backstory and historical facts do make for a rather convoluted reading, the implication of the whole case is still clear enough in the end. It makes you want to google the whole thing to get the full scope of what's happening really ;)
March 10, 2014
(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I felt this book was particularly engaging and easy to read, with a main character who was easy to relate to and who, I felt, worked well as a hero.
There were a lot of things going on in this book. It was a bit confusing at times, but it still kept me reading, so it was clearly doing something right.
Some of the scenes were really enough to make me cringe - especially the one with the container in the storage. That was particularly gruesome - and, of course, my very vivid imagination provided a lot of mental images that were really disturbing.
The information about the history of this country was quite interesting. I did feel able to relate to Alex as a character, even though I felt that he made a few mistakes in his decisions about his actions. A few of those seemed very amateurish, which didn't necessarily fit with his experience. (Or maybe it's just all of the books I've read that make it quite clear that hiding things from authority figures means that bad things happen).
The asides during the book were a bit confusing, especially because there were too many characters referred to as 'he'. I was also somewhat confused about the time frame of them.
On the whole, I found the book to be really well-written and I did enjoy reading it. I noticed a few errors, but nothing really major. I think I'd definitely be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.
(This review may contain spoilers).
I felt this book was particularly engaging and easy to read, with a main character who was easy to relate to and who, I felt, worked well as a hero.
There were a lot of things going on in this book. It was a bit confusing at times, but it still kept me reading, so it was clearly doing something right.
Some of the scenes were really enough to make me cringe - especially the one with the container in the storage. That was particularly gruesome - and, of course, my very vivid imagination provided a lot of mental images that were really disturbing.
The information about the history of this country was quite interesting. I did feel able to relate to Alex as a character, even though I felt that he made a few mistakes in his decisions about his actions. A few of those seemed very amateurish, which didn't necessarily fit with his experience. (Or maybe it's just all of the books I've read that make it quite clear that hiding things from authority figures means that bad things happen).
The asides during the book were a bit confusing, especially because there were too many characters referred to as 'he'. I was also somewhat confused about the time frame of them.
On the whole, I found the book to be really well-written and I did enjoy reading it. I noticed a few errors, but nothing really major. I think I'd definitely be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.
June 14, 2015
I enjoyed this book which was set in Hong Kong in 2017. I think the timing was a bit "off" though. 2017 is only 2 years away (the book was published in 2014) and in that short time it seems the whole world has collapsed. The story is about an anti-corruption police officer from Beijing (really?) who is in HK on exchange to try and clean up corruption in HK. Two Methodist Ministers are killed and then five people are found dead in a shipping container. Soong and his partner De Suza have to convince their boss that these seemingly unrelated deaths are linked. The story parallels the Boxer Rebellion which I know nothing about (but now I want to know more about it) and things heat up. One editing thing which really bothered me was that the years are spelled out as words eg 1999 is Nineteen Ninety Nine. Not a big thing I know but I found it annoying. Overall though an interesting story and good read
April 25, 2019
The character is likable, some of the ideas intriguing.
Except, nothing interesting seems to happen. At least, not as I expected it to. Based on the description, something darker and more fast paced was what I thought was heading my way once I got this book.
I was sadly mistaken. There is murder and it is interesting. Just, any sense of urgency is lost in a string of flashbacks and conversations that feel unrelated. As long as you're not looking for a fast paced detective story, this might be for you.
Except, nothing interesting seems to happen. At least, not as I expected it to. Based on the description, something darker and more fast paced was what I thought was heading my way once I got this book.
I was sadly mistaken. There is murder and it is interesting. Just, any sense of urgency is lost in a string of flashbacks and conversations that feel unrelated. As long as you're not looking for a fast paced detective story, this might be for you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2015
Reminded me a little bit of the movies Internal Affairs or the 1992 movie with Yun-Fat Chow Hard Boiled, I suppose with the ending like it was in the book a sequel to it is in order, I would pick it up and read it.
February 16, 2015
A detective investigates a serious of mysterious murders.
This book felt very long - it proceeds at a very slow pace, often explaining / providing unnecessary descriptions / details.
A good edit would probably bring out the essential details of the story and make this a much better book.
This book felt very long - it proceeds at a very slow pace, often explaining / providing unnecessary descriptions / details.
A good edit would probably bring out the essential details of the story and make this a much better book.
June 3, 2014
Good mystery read set in Hong Kong.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews