Shanghailanders Books in Order

Shanghailanders takes Michael Jecks far from English moorland and deep into the neon, smoke and chaos of 1920s Shanghai. The series is set in the city’s foreign concessions at a time when warlords fight for control of China, criminal gangs run whole districts and the line between policeman and soldier is thin.

At the centre of the story is Rod Cottey of the Shanghai Municipal Police. He works in a world where British, American and other foreign interests share streets with Chinese revolutionaries, Russian exiles and refugees from across Asia. His badge gives him some protection, but it also makes him a target for anyone who resents the unequal treaties that created the International Settlement.

The first novel, One Last Dance Before I Die, opens with the daylight shooting of a rich banker’s chauffeur, a killing that looks simple but quickly turns into something much larger. As Cottey digs, he moves through jazz clubs, brothels, teahouses and back alleys, meeting bodyguards from rival factions, informers with shifting loyalties and foreign residents trying to pretend their enclave is safe.

Jecks uses the setting to explore a city that is at once modern and lawless. Electric lights and rickshaws share the streets. You get glimpses of new weapons and training methods in the hands of men like Fairbairn and Sykes, pioneers of close-quarters combat, but also of traditional secret societies that have run protection rackets for generations.

The tone is closer to hardboiled noir than to cosy crime. Violence erupts quickly, and justice, when it comes, is often compromised by politics or corruption. Yet there is also a strong sense of place and of the friendships that help people survive an environment where no one can ever quite relax.

For readers who enjoy crime fiction that steps outside the usual European and North American settings, Shanghailanders offers a vivid trip to a city on the edge of revolution.