The Master of Rain

by Tom Bradby

The brilliant new thriller from the acclaimed author of Shadow Dancer and The Sleep of the Dead .Shanghai, 1926. A city of British Imperial civil servants, American gun-runners, Russian princesses and Chinese gangsters, where heroin is available on room service and everything is for sale. Exotic, sexually liberated and pulsing with life, it is a place and time where anything seems possible.For Richard Field, it represents a brave new world away from the past he is trying to escape. Seconded to the police force, his first moment of active duty is a brutal crime scene. A young White Russian woman, Lena Orlov, lies spreadeagled on her bed, sadistically murdered. As he begins to peer through the glittering surface to the murky depths beneath, Field sees a world beyond the glamour of the city’s expatriate life -- a world where everything has its price, and where human life is merely another asset to barter.The key to the investigation seems to be Lena’s neighbour, Natasha Medvedev. But can Field trust someone for whom self-preservation is the only goal? And is it wise to fall in love when there is every sign that Natasha herself may be the next victim? In a city where reality is a dangerous luxury, Field is driven into the darkness beyond the dazzle of society to a world where the basest of human needs are met and where the truth seems certain to be a fatal commodity . . .

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Historical, China

592 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Tom Bradby is a British journalist and novelist. He has been political editor for ITV News since July 2005.

Reviews

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Master of Rain: A Suspense Thriller is my first attempt at reading anything by Tom Bradby and I quite enjoyed. It's got a bit of everything, noir, foreign mystery, historical fiction, intrigue and enough action to keep you satisfied.

The book is set in Shanghai, China in 1926. Richard Field has newly arrived from England and finished training with the Shanghai police force, working with the Intelligence branch. A Russian prostitute has been viciously murdered and Richard is assigned to work with the criminal division, specifically American cop Caprisi and is partner, Chinese cop, Chen. The whole dynamic of the city and interactions between the international community and the locals makes for a fascinating setting.

Richard must wend his way through competing factions; the heads of both Intelligence, Irishman Granger, and of Criminal, Scotsman MacLeod, both want to take over as head of the Police department when the Chief retires. Their staff don't trust each other, although there develops an excellent relationship between Field and Caprisi. The international community itself is very intersting, with its own hierarchy. Field's uncle is a member of the city council and another, Lewis, is the Taipan of the biggest company in Shanghai. You also have the locals, criminal Lu Huang controls the strongest gang in the city and is very influential in all of the city's activities, including prostitution. He is the first main suspect in the murder as the victim lived in his building.

Richard is attracted to another Russian woman who was the murder victim's neighbour. Let's see, what else? Let's just say that there is a lot going on and things move along at a very nice pace. The team investigate the murder and possible other related murders and also an international drug trafficking ring, putting their own lives in danger. It's all very fascinating and a unique story. I liked the characters, the setting, the historical perspective (an time and era that I know little about) and just the whole mystery. Excellent! (4 stars)

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book. I wanted to know what would happen so I kept reading, but I might as well have skipped to the end and put myself out of my misery. The quality of the writing was poor (especially the dialogue) and the storyline disappointing.

[James Holden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well done. Shanghai in 1926. Murder. Exotica. A great who done it that keeps the reader guessing but also draws beautiful images of life in a hot, affluent, poor, corrupt city before communism takes over China. Well developed characters.

[Steven Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in Shanghai in 1926, Tom Bradby’s first novel published in the United States begins with the murder of a Russian girl in her apartment. The murder is a brutal one and the investigation that follows lures the reader into the seamier side of Shanghai at a time when China is splintered between the Guomindang, under the leadership of Chang Kai-Shek; the emerging Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong; and the various European interests that date back to the unequal treaties of the 19th century. THE MASTER OF RAIN, a title chosen for its relationship to a Chinese legend is a suspenseful novel that contains countless twists and turns that continue to the last page of the epilogue. The story centers on Richard Field who left Scotland to join the International Settlement police force in Shanghai. Field is an idealist who will soon learn the cruelties and corruption that make up daily life in the city. Field will investigate the murder of Lena Orlov and will be drawn into a situation that he could never have fathomed when he arrived in China.

As the plot unfolds the reader is given an accurate portrayal of the political and economic situation in China in the mid-1920s. The undercurrent of the civil war between the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party is ever present. Historical figures such as Michael Borodin, Chiang Kai-Shek, and Mao Zedong make cameo appearances to lend authenticity to the story. The underworld of Shanghai is controlled by Lu Huang, a Chinese version of Al Capone in association with various westerners. Lu possesses people as if they were objects, and controls the opium trade in conjunction with western elements, and all aspects of the city’s governing body including the police through graft and murder.

There are a number of interesting relationships that are developed throughout the novel. Field falls in love with one of Lu’s “possessions,” another Russian girl, Natasha Medvedev and the reader follows the ebb and flow of their interactions. Caprisi, a detective who works with Field, who arrived in China from Chicago, forms an interesting partnership with Field as he tries to protect him from himself and deal with his own demons. Throughout the story Field tries to maintain his idealism, but when confronted by the drug trade, prostitution, and political corruption, he has to finally make his own deal with the devil as the book comes to a close. The cast of colorful characters is well developed as the plot line keeps shifting and at times the reader is not sure where the story is leading. After following the social and political undercurrent described in THE MASTER OF RAIN it is not surprising that following World War II, China would be taken over by the Communist Party. The period Bradby writes about reflects how little westerners valued the lives of the Chinese people and how they were exploited for over a century.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bradby seems to have all the ingredients necessary to make this mid-'20s Shanghai noir crime tale tasty as hell. Somehow though, he's cooked 'er too slow or something and the flavors have turned out blah instead of bright.

"Master of Rain" is rightly presented as a sort of Raymond Chandler yarn set in China, but after a promising beginning this story of a Russian prostitute's murder and the investigations of the various agencies in the international zone of wide-open Shanghai slows to a crawl. It's a shame. For a while I was convinced this was a real winner here.

Bradby has an American and a newcomer Englishman from different agencies paired together in probing a powerful Chinese crime lord's connection to the woman's death. The research rings true, Shanghai feels wild and pulled in all directions by this mix of nations and people, and the ancient/modern dichotomy is atmospheric. There are officials who may be in the crime lord's pocket, lawmen at cross purposes, stifling wet heat, a gorgeous Russian babe — friend of the murdered woman — who makes our Englishman all woozy. But Bradby's reluctance to get on with things soon enough ultimately is crippling. Finishing a short chapter, you might wonder: Just how did that advance the story? "Master of Rain" certainly is a decent effort (2.5 stars) with some good writing and atmosphere, but at 500-plus pages it's a good 100 too many.

[Evan Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely the worst of a risky genre. This book is almost a parody of historical mystery/thrillers. Breathless description is wrapped in a chocking embrace of cliche: crazy WWI veterans; honest Scots; faithful Chinese, etc. If there is an overused image of colonial China it's in here. The glancing references to historical events are so removed from the tired and predictable plot as to indicate the author took Wikipedia for a quick spin.

[Jan Greashaber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Shanghai between the World Wars
The city was divided into sectors controlled by different nations. Each may have been more corrupt than the next. One man tries to help a Russian woman and avoid the corruption.

[Mike Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Precipitation intermittent: a journalist writing fiction is like a cow in a yogurt bar, although the Light Channel’s insomniac News At When? silver fox makes a workmanlike effort. He’s clearly studied hard at the Jeffrey Deaver School of Thrillers and seems very pleased with himself. If this pot has boiled dry, why, I wondered, was I reading it? Then I saw a dead-eyed woman on the tube staring at Hadley Freeman’s Be Awesome. Question answered.

[John Porter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Put it this way...I had to go back and search for the title of this book less than 60 days after reading it. It's not that it doesn't try to be memorable; it tries too hard. And it's a weird amalgam of Historical Novel/CSI episode/Good cop, Bad cop story that really didn't work for me.

[Josh · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not done with this book: I started it over 1 year ago, and was sort of bored, so I put it down. I haven't picked it up since and may never pick it up again. But I'm telling myself I might since I love detective stories, and the time period interested me as well.

[Juliana Philippa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great detective novel set in 1920s Shanghai with twists and turns (who can the main character, Richard Field, really trust? which of his fellow officers are on the take?) and a little romance. Highly recommend if you're looking for a pleasurable read!

[Eltham Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with prominent journalists crossing over into thriller writing is that publishers and editors tend not to want to criticise your work too closely. If you also happen to be a very high-profile journalist - and the BBCs political editor no less - they know that people are going to buy your book whether it's good or bad; and I suspect Tom Bradby doesn't have a very large stack of rejection letters to use as a booster cushion.

I wanted to like this book, it has all the elements I like and the synopsis seemed interesting but I couldn't get beyond the first few chapters. Aside from the narrative being quite tedious I simply couldn't get past the fact that his cast list includes a bevy of White Russian prostitutes all of whom have masculine surnames. That the BBCs political editor doesn't know that Russian surnames are gender differentiated is astonishing; that not a single publishing executive, sub editor or proof reader picked up in this less so, as I suspect the project was green-lit without too much scrutiny, because, you know, it's Tom Bradby.

I suppose it's possible that in 1920s Shanghai, the White Russian population dropped their gender differentiated suffixes although, as they were the "conservative" arm of the Russian people at the time, it would seem a strange thing to do. It's also possible that the error - if indeed it is one, and I am not misguided in my criticism - has been corrected in later publishing runs as I bought the book the week it came out.

I'm glad that some people enjoyed it, as I don't bear Tom Bradby any ill will, but it might be an idea for him to take a page out of this veteran guitar-maker's book: never build your first guitars under your own name, lest they come back to haunt you. There is a reason writers adopt "les nom-de-plumes"; I'll let you guess what that reason is...

The problem is that now, I will be very unlikely to buy another book under the "Tom Bradby" brand. I trust that he won't be too bothered by this.

[Jak60 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the best by Tom Brady but still another solid entry in Tom the author's bodywork; it is the fourth book in order of publication arder after Shadow Dancer, The Sleep Of The Dead (also in my view the weakest of the entire output) and The White Russian, of which we find here some of the characters.

After reading all of Mr. Bradby's books, I can say he's an author guaranteeing a pretty stable and high level of quality; The Master Of Rain is an intense and complex piece of historical fiction set in the Shanghai International Settlement in 1926, on the brink of the Chinese communist revolution. The plot is somewhat conventional and lacks a little the twists the reader will find in the author's best novels.

Mr Bradby uses a well functioning formula without becoming formulaic (quite the sweet spot): an ordinary crime is committed, a smart and earnest detective scratches beyond the surface and keeps digging; so the ordinary crime unravel a much wider and more complex plot. Noir atmosphere (in some cases close to hard-boiled), finely chiseled characters, a dash a romance, all interwoven into a thick historical backdrop; this is the formula of most of Bradby's books. The first 6 are mainly historical fiction while in the last 4 the author has redirected his focus to the world of espionage.

For potential new readers of this author, here's my two cents:

Outstanding
Blood Money

Very Good
The God Of Chaos
Yesterday's Spy

Good
Secret Service trilogy (includes Double Agent and Triple Cross)
The White Russian
The Master Of Rain

So-So
Shadow Dancer

Bad
The Sleep Of The Dead

[Nicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had all the elements of a noir thriller: dogged detectives, a beautiful woman in straitened circumstances, unscrupulous businessman and ruthless gangsters. And all in an exotic setting. The ingredients are there, but it never reached its full potential.

The story is slow going, the tension isn't as taut as it should be, and the novel is too long. Our hero, Richard Field, is a determined man, driven by his unhappy childhood and the suicide of his father. He's not very good at reading people though. When he falls in love with a Russian woman involved with the local Chinese ganglord, he gets all kinds of stupid.

I got a sense of Shanghai as an exotic, seedy melting pot, with British ex-pats lording it over the locals and other foreigners alike. There were so many mentions of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank that I began to wonder if Mr Bradby was on commission with HSBC.

This was an okay read but could have been better with more pace to the plot.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. When I look back on it as a whole, it would make a great film noir movie. The setting is rich and the politics of the time appear to be illustrated well. The diverse makeup of Shanghai in the 20s feels like it's on the cusp of change. This uneasiness helps you understand Richard Field's dilemma. The mystery is compelling and leaves you guessing for most of the book. I feel for many of the red herrings as we were bounced from corrupt cop to corrupt cop. On paper, these elements all sound great. However, it all didn't seem to mingle right for me. Too many scenes and too many red herrings maybe. It seem to last forever. It was well into the book when you started developing suspects for the serial killer. For the most part, it's a story of the corruption of the police force, not a thriller.

[Jia Cherng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterful thriller from Tom Bradby. I got here from The White Russian and I'm surprise at the connection between this book and that, though it does not contribute to the plot. The plot revolves around Field and her, both of them with a past to forget.

The plot is filled with suspense and is hardly predictable. It is also apt for me to note that the language and sentence structure is good and makes the whole story smooth to read.

An emotional book with a more heartwarming ending than The White Russian.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read.

A good piece of historical noir set in Shangai of the 1920's. A young idealistic police officer comes up against overwhelming corruption investigating a sadistic serial killer, whilst fighting against the odds to protect the woman he loves.
Slightly over long and slow at times but never boring. A good read.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this book about 200 pages. The dialogue is written in an annoying way and the plot doesn't move. The main characters obsess about the same things in every chapter without making any progress. I regret wasting so much of my time with this book. I definitely don't recommend reading this one. Pick something better!

[Seth Sulkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good start but too long and ultimately monotonous

I really liked the first part of the book. The author did a great job recreating the atmosphere of old Shanghai and the various characters were quite interesting. After a great start, however, the story developed too slowly and eventually, I couldn’t wait for the book to end.

[Michael McCroddan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chinatown crosses Tai Pan in 1920’s Shanghai

A superb evocation of 1920’s Shanghai with amazing attention to detail. Good crime narrative combined with political and historical accuracy. Great read!

[Roger Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thriller in Shanghai

Good characters. Atmospheric. Good storyline. About 100 pages too long. Mr Bradby has written quite a few books. How does he find the time! Secret Service next.

[Andy Blanche · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed many of Tom’s books but found his contemporary novels more gripping than this.

A little overlong perhaps although the characters were well drawn and it was very atmospheric.

If you’re new to Tom I’d recommend Shadow Dancer or Secret Service as starting points.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well Mr Bradby you have cemented yourslef as one of my favourite authors after this book. Loved it.
In fact so much I chewed through it in 2 days!!
Great details and characters. Clealry benefited from hsi time in Honky Fid!!
Wonder if he's written more Richard Fieldbo0oks?? Must find out....

[Pj Mensel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good historical fiction and mystery. Noty as good as The White Russian though.

[Ceci · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Hristina Kaspshik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing special. It was good book for describing Shanghai in 1920s.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly not my favorite book but j just needed to see how it played out tho i figured out who the bad guy was near the beginning. Too obvious!

[Gareth Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

couldn't get in to this and gave up on it

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. I like reading books set in this time period 1926.

[Paschalis]

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