It's summer in Shanghai. The city's 18 million residents continue their hurtling progress toward modernization. This hits home when Fong is told that his rooms are being "condo-ized" and he's being offered the special insider's price—approximately four years' worth of his salary. He is awakened from a deep sleep by the ring of his phone. It is the night watchman of the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and he's crying. At the theatre, Fong can't believe his eyes. His old rival and his deceased wife's lover, the Canadian theatre director Geoffrey Hyland, swings from the end of a long rope centre stage, an apparent suicide. As Fong stares at the dead body he feels the world spin beneath his feet and senses not only that this is not a suicide, but also that finding whoever killed his old enemy will lead him to a new knowledge of him self—a knowledge he's not sure he is able to face.

David Rotenberg is a professor emeritus of theatre studies at York University, where he taught graduate students for over 25 years. He has released 12 novels which have been published by Penguin, Simon and Schuster, McArthur and Company, St. Martin's Press, and ECW. His novels have been optioned in the past for major motion picture adaptation. City Rising is presently in negotiation with London producers. He I s the founder and artistic director of the world-renowned actor training institute - Pro Actors Lab. His historical fiction novel entitled, City Rising is based on true events and explores the epic stories of the Iraqi-Jews, and the prominent Chinese families of the renowned port city across several centuries. It will be published by At Bay Press in the Fall of 2023.

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“This delightful series...gets better with each new novel.”

“Rotenberg has a real talent for characterization and place, taking readers right into the urban heart of Shanghai, with its 18 million people and conflicts between tradition and modernization.”

Margaret Cannon

“Rotenberg's latest Zhong Fong mystery is superb.”