Murder in Manchuria by Scott Seligman
In 1933, Semyon Kaspe, scion of a prosperous Jewish family in Manchuria, was kidnapped and eventually killed after ransom negotiations failed. Kaspe and his family lived in Harbin, a multiethnic city home to Russians, Jews, Chinese, Japanese and Korean residents. It belonged to Manchukuo, the puppet state established by invading Japanese armies. The police force included Russian and Chinese as well as Japanese—and most were on the take or serving interests other than justice.
The story of Kaspe and Harbin, pieced together by Scott Seligman (The Great Kosher Meat War of 1902) is fascinating with enough characters for a hardboiled crime novel or film. The hero of the story, Louis Reynaud, a French diplomat, conducted his own investigation and pressured the Japanese for action because Kaspe was a French citizen and a personal friend. Murder in Manchuria includes city maps and a glossary, helping readers through the unfamiliar landscape of a city that today bears no resemblance to the thriving if dangerous, pluralistic metropolis of the 1930s.
Get Murder in Manchuria on Amazon here.
Paid link
