The Secret Sharers

by Qiu Xiaolong, Xiaolong Qiu

Ex-Chief Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Bureau investigates the case of a vanished man in this poetic, atmospheric literary mystery set in contemporary Shanghai.

Over two million copies of the Inspector Chen series sold worldwide.

With the Chinese government’s crackdown on private investigators, times are hard for those in the Which includes Inspector Chen’s good friend Old Hunter.

So when one of Shanghai’s most successful businesswomen asks Old Hunter to help a man nicknamed X who’s been vanished by the government, reason unknown, he accepts the politically dangerous—but extremely well-paid—case, and immediately turns to Chen for help in turn.

What crime has the vanished man supposedly committed? Chen plunges in, his investigations soon leading back to the massacre at Tian’anmen Square, when X spoke up against the Party—and Chen did not. And as the inspector uncovers the life of a man whose background and tastes strangely echo his own, he becomes desperate not just to save the mysterious X, but to redeem himself for his own mistakes.

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication January 6, 2026

About the author

Qiu Xiaolong (裘小龙) was born in Shanghai, China. He is the author of the award-winning Inspector Chen series of mystery novels, Death of a Red Heroine (2000), A Loyal Character Dancer (2002), When Red Is Black (2004), A Case of Two Cities (2006), Red Mandarin Dress (2007), and The Mao Case (2009). He is also the author of two books of poetry translations, Treasury of Chinese Love Poems (2003) and Evoking T'ang (2007), and his own poetry collection, Lines Around China (2003). Qiu's books have sold over a million copies and have been published in twenty languages. He currently lives in St. Louis with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Linden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ex-Chief Inspector Chen of the Shanghai Police Bureau agrees to help his friend who is a private detective. A wealthy woman is paying very well for the agency to locate a man from her past whom she fears may be in prison. This man, X, once had a prestigious academic career until he spoke out against the massacre in Tian’amen Square. Sadly after this he lost everything and set himself up as a fortune teller. With the help of his employee Jin, Chen is determined to learn why X was taken away, and prove that he was not a threat to the “Big Brother” government in Shanghai. Classic and contemporary poems and allusions to literature compliment the well-told story, offering insight into contemporary China (and to authoritarian government tactics with which Americans are unfortunately becoming familiar). Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this advance copy.

[Jacqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qiu Xiaolong's The Secret Sharers (Severn House 2026), Book 14 of the Inspector Chen series, is a mix of poetry from thoughtful Chinese minds--

"...quoted from a Han dynasty scholar, saying something to the effect that when the whole bird’s nest has fallen to the hard ground, how could people expect to find an unbroken egg buried under the debris?"

Chinese philosophers--

"Just as Lao Tzu says in the Daodejing, ‘The Way that can be traveled is not the ordinary Way. The name that can be named is not the ordinary name.’”

Ideas from Western writers--

“The horror, the horror,” Chen murmured, echoing in the depth of his mind the tragic ending of a novel about the heart of darkness. It was another novel by Conrad."

... and wisdom from the greats like Heraclitus--

"There’s no stepping into the same river twice, Heraclitus had said long, long ago."

It is soaked in Chinese culture and left me always feeling a peace and acceptance of circumstances no matter how dire the search for the missing person X had become or the dangers to Cheng and his friend, Old Hunter. Chen recognizes the difficulties of the Chinese overlords but also knows the challenge of fighting against them:

"We stopped holding those even before the bulldozers moved in to demolish the lane. You must have heard of the latest political term—‘thoughtcrimes.’"

"A well-known professor surnamed Lu, the compiler of a large English and Chinese dictionary, has recently written to me that he was great-walled."

It brought to mind the writings of Dostoevsky as he railed against Russian rulers and Solzhenitsyn as he snuck his rants against Communism through the socialist thought police. Mixed throughout are Chen's brilliant detective skills to search out the missing X. I felt honored to follow along as a reader in his wake. Highly recommended for those looking for a detective story that is nothing like the usual and will not only challenge your problem-solving skills but for you to think about the world around you.

[Scilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspector Chen is on leave from his former Chief Inspector position posibly to keep him out of sight. Things are not easy in modern China, and sometimes being good in your job isn't good for you. While on his convelescent leave, and Chen takes on a case for a real estate woman, Mei. He is asked to try to find a man named X, who has disappeared. It isn't unusual in china to have someone disappear. He was last seen in Red Dust Lane. X used to be a college professor before hanging out at Red Dust Lane and then disappearing. Chen has help from Jin, a young woman who is not as well known as Chen and can thus be in public more often. Chen finds out that X gave a speech at the last Red Dust meeting, and then his speech was denounced.

I found it a little confusing to try to keep track of all the names, but it was fun to read a book taking place in China. I thank Netgalley and Severn House for the ARC so that I could read the book before publication.

[J R · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun and timely book that goes into depth about the Chinese government and some of their less-than-democratic tools, focused around the Tienanmen Square massacre. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.