As a lover of crime novels and Old Shanghai, new book “City of lost souls” by Martin Petersen just fits the bill perfectly.
1930s and 40s crime movies are often called “Film noir” (black movies in French). This comes from the original “Roman noir” (“black novel” in French), a particular type of crime novel also called hardboiled crime fiction. Characters of this kind of stories are often disappointed with life, having a cynical attitude. Besides classics like Raymond Chandler, the best modern author of the genre is probably James Elroy (See post “Perfidia” for more details). One of the best film noir is “Casablanca” with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman that is some clear parallels with Old Shanghai.
A number of authors have tried to recreate Old Shanghai in crime novels. Some of the best attempts at Shanghai noir so far were Tom Brady’s “The master of rain” and MJ Lee “Death in Shanghai“. French readers can also enjoy Bruno Birolli’s “Le music-hall des espions“. “City of lots souls” is a great new addition with many of the genre’s cliches including a private detective, a femme fatale, a mystery and gun fights. The story keeps the reader turning the pages and the book is highly entertaining.
Author Martin Petersen has long been studying Old Shanghai history, and it shows in the book. Events fit right, characters are realistic and the author includes many smell, taste and noise that make the book feels like real. The book includes a large number of secondary characters that really existed, including media man Carl Crow, French jesuit Robert Jacquinot de Besange and Du YueSheng that are well played. It also reflects rightly the feelings of foreigners living in Shanghai at that time, including the attitude to Chinese people and drinking habits. Sometimes description of buildings and places are a little too long, but never boring.
There are few mistakes in Shanghai geography, with distances being sometimes underestimated compared to reality. For example, it is clearly not possible to see the French Park from Black stone apartments as mentioned in the book. Another point is the New Asia hotel, being mentioned as the headquarters of the Japanese in 1932… when it was actually built in 1933 on the ruins of the attack. A final point is about the Canidrome, that was not build by Henry Morris. Although located on a part of the former Morris estate, it was built by a group of French investors and run by French man Felix Bouvier. Still the author knows Old Shanghai well and errors are only minors, mostly on the French side.
The plot is interesting without being too complex, while taking the readers to various places in the city and beyond. Martin Petersen definitely got some inspiration from one of my favorite book, “Foreign devils on the Silk road” by Peter Hopkirk. The story is built around historical facts and feels right. The action is well paced making it a real page turner after having understood the weird and sometimes annoying page ordering. As a collector of Old Shanghai items and lover of film noir I recommend this book. Hopefully there will be some more episodes.