Recommended reads

[Thecla]

Speaking of mystery novels set in China (albeit modern China in this case), "Death of a Red Heroine" by Qui Xialong is great.

Yup, I enjoyed that book a lot too -- very interesting (and, I think, pretty accurate) background on the massive changes going on in China recently (though who knows what the SARS disaster will bring...)

For mysteries, if you haven't read them, I also really recommend Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series ("Ratking" etc); almost like Raymond Chandler, but with a convincingly corrupt Italian setting instead of LA.

p.s. I was just pulling your leg about the coding.;)