This historical fiction novel is based on an actual person, Song Ci, who lived in 13th century China, and could well be called a father of forensic medicine. I have to admit, I only picked this book because it was a free audiobook offering from Amazon and lots of people gave it four stars. I can't be that generous. The parts that are murder mystery and forensics are fine. However, the rest of the story is akin to reading the Book of Job. One awful thing after another occurs in Ci's life to the point where I wanted to say "Enough already." Once the story moved to the Emperor's Palace where gruesome murders are taking place, the story improves greatly, although Ci is still subjected to horrible treatment from those around him. Unfortunately the not-so-great sections of the story outweigh the good parts.
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