All the Tears in China - Gentill
(also published as Shanghai Secrets)
Audio performance by Rupert Degas
4 stars

Rowland Sinclair is under threat again. He is a very reluctant and unqualified businessman. Nevertheless, his brother Wilfred sends him to Shanghai for international wool trading negotiations. He is instructed to make no deals. He is to promise nothing, do nothing. It’s 1935. The Japanese are facing a potential trade embargo over their illegal invasion of Manchuria. The financial stakes are high. There’s no chance that Rowland will be left alone to do nothing. His problems begin with a dead girl in his hotel suite.

As usual, the historical setting is detailed and the plot is suspenseful. Rowland is lucky to have his trusty friends as he faces enemies on all fronts. This book is full of colorful, fictional, and historical characters. (The incidental inclusion of Emily Hahn reminded me that I have a biography that I’d like to read, Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves and Adventures of Emily Hahn) Gentill captures the seething ethnic/immigrant/refugee mix of Shanghai between the wars. The combined fascist threat of Japan and Nazi Germany is ever present; as is the institutional blindness of the western powers who have a greater fear of communism. The historical notes at the end of this book ( as with others in the series) are some of the most informative that I’ve ever read. Just know that the author mixes up actual history with her fictional events in her very interesting epilogs.

If Rowland and his friends have a habit of collecting dangerous enemies, they are also able to find trustworthy friends. I’d love to read a spinoff series about the fledgling detective agency that is starting at the end of this book. ( )

Because of personal reasons Wilfred Sinclair is unable to travel to Shanghai in 1935 and broker a wool deal with the Japanese. So his brother Rowland is sent with the company of his three close friends. But trouble does seem to follow them and a female body is found in their hotel suite. While trying to stay out of prison they decide to investigate with the help of several new friends.
An entertaining enough cozy mystery but not really enough of a mystery, but thankfully less political than some previous stories.
A NetGalley Book ( )

Australian amateur detective Rowland Sinclair is sent to Shanghai China in 1935 by his wealthy brother to negotiate a wool contract on behalf of their family firm. An artist by inclination, he is accompanied by a coterie of close friends who live with him. Altogether it's a group of eccentric individuals.
Once in Shanghai they set up shop in a luxurious suite at the swank Cathay Hotel and start to explore the pleasures of a cosmopolitan city, a free port inhabited by people of many colours, creeds and nationalities.
The story begins when Rowland discovers the body of a taxi girl in his suite. It was a violent death as her throat was slit. He was supposed to host her for tea at the hotel, an arrangement made the previous evening in the hotel's jazz club. She was a penniless White Russian working to support herself in Shanghai.
This discovery sets off a chain of events that takes Rowland and his friends all over Shanghai as they investigate the death. A police inspector is convinced Rowland killed her and threatens to imprison him. Rowland and friends are convinced the only way out is to find the real killer. Their investigation leads them into all corners of the city and brings a suspense and adventure to the storytelling. Rowland is put in harm's way several times, adding to the excitement.
The exotic city provides an atmospheric background for the story. Plenty of intrigue provides a stage for a cast of characters to perform. There's a shadowy British spy, overbearing Japanese businessmen, a menacing Chinese gangster, a Chinese butler, a Sikh taxi driver, a wealthy hotel owner and his journalist girlfriend (and her pet monkey). Together with Rowland and his friends they carry the story along at a good clip.
This is the ninth in a series featuring Rowland and his friends, Previous stories have taken them elsewhere in the world for adventure. For example, a dangerous excursion to Nazi Germany is referenced several times during this story. Rowland encounters a variety of trouble on his travels.
The chapters are short which provides a brisk pace to the story. Each is prefaced by a short excerpt from a newspaper on a topic related to the chapter. This introduces some whimsy despite being a distraction to the flow of the story.
It's a good traditional detective story made noteworthy by the antics of Rowland and the cast of eccentric characters. It's made interesting for the story to told from an Australian point of view.
Recommended.
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for providing a complementary advanced reader's copy of the eBook. ( )

By the time a series reaches book number nine, there are many elements that a reader can expect, and ALL THE TEARS IN CHINA delivers on them with aplomb. Rowly and his band of colleagues are as close as they always were; Milton is still quoting other people's poetry with Rowly providing the attributions; Clyde is still the sensible one; Edna is obsessed with something (this time it's her newly discovered interest in film); Rowly is still quietly in love with Edna (and he will be beaten up by various lurking types with metronome like regularity); and this little band of artistic types will offend powers that be and get themselves into considerable hot water. Local water being so hot this time, that brother Wilfred, still behaving like part stuffed shirt / part worried brother, sends them off to China, ostensibly so Rowly can act as his representative in international wool sale negotiations, removing him from Sydney and the fall out from the goings on in the previous book.

The story lines in this series are increasingly intertwined, with the fictional action set firmly in the real history of Australia, the rise of Communism, Fascism and the lead up to World War II. Because of these interconnections, ALL THE TEARS IN CHINA will give you a feel for the style (which is delightful), for the plotting (which is always cleverly constructed) and for the characters (who are vivid and real), but you may find you're intrigued by the missing connections and back story which means you're in the lucky position of having eight earlier novels to seek out.

The China that Gentill describes in this outing is fascinating and different from the China of current day - this is before Communist control, when tensions with Japan were ever present, there are a lot of White Russian refugees living there, and there's a distinct feeling of colonialist attitudes in some quarters. The trade negotiations that Rowly is there for (with definite instructions from Wilfred not to agree to anything) are the cause of considerable tension with concerns of trading with the Japanese becoming increasingly prevalent. Nothing compared to the problems they encounter when a young White Russian woman is found dead in Rowly's suite, the day after a night of dancing in the hotel, and an arrangement made to meet in the hotel for tea. Needless to say, Rowland is a convenient prime suspect and the gang of friends are strangers in a strange land, trying to save their friend from prison with the help of their newly acquired Chinese servant, an Indian taxi driver and Wilfred's old friend and local solicitor.

The thing with the Rowland Sinclair series is that the required elements ease the manner in which the real history is incorporated into the story. Whilst the friends are gathering in local assistance, searching for the dead woman's brother, and trying to clear Rowly's name you learn snippets about the White Russian's back story, the way that the ex-pat community operated, and the role of trade, commerce, sanctions and political machinations in the mid 1930's. As you'd expect from that time period, the constant rise in profile and bravado of the German Fascists is a gently delivered lesson of history in real danger of repeating itself.

The Rowland Sinclair series is an interesting one. It's gentle and funny in places. It's characters are vivid, it's sense of place and time light and breezy, yet peppered with reminders of where the world was heading. It's predictable enough to feel like a gathering of old friends, and pointed enough to make you wonder whether that sense of history repeating itself isn't a bit more profound than we've realised.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/all-tears-china-sulari-gentill ( )

This mystery was sent to me by the publisher Pantera Press via Netgalley. Thank you.

In this colorful novel, Rowland Sinclair has been deputized by his brother Wilfred to represent Sinclair Holdings at an international wool conference in Shanghai, China. Rowly agrees, even though he would much rather just concentrate in his career as an artist. Wilfred, unable to attend personally even though he was expected, briefs his brother on the basics of the wool trade and emphasizes that Rowly must not sign any contracts while in China. He is merely to attend the meetings in Wilfred’s place and listen to the advice of the Sinclair Holdings representative in China, Wilfred’s old friend attorney Gilbert Carmel. As an added incentive, Wilfred agrees that Rowly’s companions Edna, Clyde, and Milton should accompany him.

The quartet is charmed by Shanghai, a city where East and West, splendor and squalor, reality and mysticism meet. Unfortunately, the spell is broken when the body of a pretty Russian exile is found in Rowly’s hotel room. Since Rowly had met, danced with, and agreed to meet Alexandra Romanova the following day for tea, he becomes suspect number one. He has to deal with the police while at the same time trying to follow Wilfred’s directions to just listen to the representatives at the wool conference without any commitment. Attorney Gilbert Carmel pressures Rowly to accept a very generous offer from the Japanese for the Sinclair wool and cannot understand Rowly’s reluctance to accept his advice.

When Rowly is arrested for Alexandra’s murder and thrown into the notorious Shanghai prison where he is brutalized by the sadistic guards, it is up to his friends get him out. Too many prisoners die before standing trial.

All the Tears in China is an exciting, nonstop mystery. Shanghai is as much a character as Rowly, his friends, and the inhabitants of the city. A very strong entry in the Sinclair series. ( )