MY BOUCHERCON 2026 (DAY THREE) -

MY BOUCHERCON 2026 (DAY THREE) -

I arrived at the Telus Centre just in time for the Deadly Canada session. Wayne Arthurson was moderator. Panelists were Anthony Bidulka, Charlotte Morgani, M.H. Callway and Dave Sweet. (A photo is below.)

Anthony, who is from Saskatchewan, opened the session by saying Canadians are polite people and you are less likely to be killed in Canada but we think alot about murder.

Sweet, a retired Calgary homicide detective, said he believes there is more good than bad in Canada. He added that even some of the baddest Canadians he has encountered have said sorry in the end.

On location Anthony said Saskatchewan has lots of space but still has intimacy. The openness and isolation can be horrifying. At the same time there is the closeness of rural Saskatchewan where everyone knows everyone in small communities.

Sweet spoke of dealing with 600 suspicious deaths during this career of over 20 years with Calgary Police Services. He said memories from the murders bubble up in his memory.

M.H. said real life is stranger than fiction. She wrote a mystery involving reptiles. As part of her research she learned of fashion shows for iguanas in Toronto.

I suggested in a question/comment that, in my experience Canadian police use more honey than vinegar when interrogating suspects. Sweet explained that he would sometimes ask a suspect what would your mother think about what you did and what would she want you to say.

After the session I had a photo with Anthony. I think we were two of the best dressed guys at Bouchercon.

I moved on to the session called Crime Writing Economics: Royalties, Advances, and Big Break Myth. Jaima Fixsen was moderator. On the panel were W. Michael Gear, Otto Penzler, Mike Farley and Neal Bailey.

Penzler provided a breakdown of the hidden costs of publishing a hardcover book in New York City. These are the costs in addition to the overhead of maintaining a business and employee costs.

Penzler’s hidden costs for publishing a 10,000 books run to be sold at $30 per book are:

1.) Say $10,000 advance to author;

2.) After internal editing $1,000 for a freelance copy editor;

3.) $1,000 for setting the book in type;

4.) $500 - $1,000 for a proof reader;

5.) $1,400 - $1,800 for having a studio prepare a dust jacket;

6.) $3 - $5 per book in printing costs;

7.) If distributed by a company like Simon & Schuster a 15% - 20% commission;

8.) From the $30 per book sales price a bookseller like Barnes & Noble will take $15;

9.) Royalties to the author would be 10% of the dust jacket price of $30 for the first 10,000 books sold with royalties increasing to 12.5% for the next 5,000 books sold and 15% for the books sold over 15,000;

10.) Promotions of the book at $1.50 per book.

He concluded that it is hard making money on sales of 10,000 for a book.

After that sobering session I went for a lovely lunch with Edmonton authors, Janice MacDonald and Candas Jane Dorsey. 

Included in our wide ranging  conversation was an explanation by Candas, who spent years publishing books, that it is even harder for Canadian publishers to make money as the price point for a book is set by what American publishers are charging. To help publishers address the inevitable losses the Federal Government provides payments. Canadian publishing is a precarious business.

All three of us have concerns over relying on digitization for storage of written materials. As the years go by there are increasing risks that the digitized documents may be inaccessible as platforms change.

I had greatly enjoyed Janice’s Randy Craig mysteries and was very glad when she gave me a copy of My Heart Belongs to Dante, the third in her new series of Imogene Durant mysteries. Durant experiences adventures outside Canada by reading books in the place where the books were set. In My Heart Belongs to Dante she is in Florence reading Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Candas provided me with a copy of The Adventures of Isabel. From the dust jacket Isabel a “downsized-social-worker and her cat, Bunnywit, are jolted into a harsh, street-world of sex, lies, and betrayal”.

In the afternoon I visited the book room where I met a pair of authors pitching their books.

After listening to Paddy Hirsch, an Irish writer, I got a copy of The Devil’s Half Mile, a mystery set in 1799 New York.

Don Macdonald persuaded me to get The Faithful which is about the murder of a young Hutterite man.

By mid-afternoon I was ready to head back to the hotel to see my wife Sharon and her guide dog, Tilly. We went out for supper with our son, Michael, our daughter-in-law, Kaja, and our 2 year old grandson, Henrik. We went to Mina’s, a Brazilian steakhouse near the hotel. We had an excellent rodizio meal enjoying the waiters bringing skewers of cooked meat and pineapple to the table. I find it hard to be restrained at an all-you-can-eat place.

MY BOUCHERCON 2026 (DAY TWO)

MY BOUCHERCON 2026 (DAY TWO) -

I started the morning at The Hidden Load-Bearing Principles of a Murder Mystery Plot session with Juanita Violini. 

Violini analyzed the structure of a large number of mysteries including all the Agatha Christie and Rex Stout mysteries. From her studies she created diagrams.

The first was story structure as a murder cake. The bottom layer is actually what happens. The middle layer are the clues and red herrings. The top layer is what appeared to happen.

The second was the suspect equalizer diagram she calls a snowflake from its design. She emphasizes shining equal light on all the suspects. 

Third is the Whodunnit device. She states an author needs to decide on the villain. Only the villain will have method, motive and opportunity to commit murder. Other suspects will have one or two of the three requirements

Fourth is the clue calculator. She said clues lead to the truth while red herrings lead away from the truth. She recommends making a spreadsheet of clues.

Overall she recommends writing out what happens chronologically before working on clues and red herrings.

After the session I spoke with Toronto lawyer and author, Robert Rotenberg. He has written a series of books set in Toronto. The initial books combined lawyers and police. Later books have focused on detective Ari Greene. I mentioned to him that in his second last book What We Buried the opening describes an attempted murder on Clinton Street just off College. I said Sharon and I had been on that very block of Clinton Street a few months before I read the book.

I then participated in three truths and a lie game. Fellow participants were Liisa Kovala / A.L. Jensen, Scott McKinnon and Melissa Ye. Each participant wrote three truths about themselves and Erik D’Souza came up with the lie about each participant. We read the lie for the first time when we read aloud from a sheet containing the truths and a lie. We then answered questions from the Head Lie Detector, Shoshana (S.M. Freedman), and the audience. (Our photo is below.)

My three truths and a lie were:

1.) I have written approximately 2,500,000 words which were published but have never had published a book nor a short story nor a play.

2.) I have been to bookstores and/or libraries on 6 continents.

3.) I have visited the graves of more than a dozen famous mystery and crime writers while travelling.

4.)  I have visited the home of the late mystery author, Gail Bowen, in Regina, Saskatchewan where there is a Cold War underground bunker in the backyard in case of nuclear attack.

My lie was not detected. Poor Shoshana. She did not identify the lie of any of the four participants. I invite readers to say which of the above four statements about me was a lie.

Today was the birthday of Ludvica Boota, the Crime Writers of Canada Executive Director. We had a nice lunch together at Charcut.

This afternoon I attended Joys and Pitfalls of Collecting Crime Fiction and Non-Fiction. Vancouver writer Sam Wiebe was moderator. On the panel were Peter Rozovsky, Warren Moore, Chip Cowell and Sandy Bielesch.

I was startled when Sandy said she has 7,000 crime books in her home. I was stunned when Chip said he has 24,000 books!

On what gives them special satisfaction collecting books Sandy gets excited about completing a set of books for an author. She says to herself “Thank God. It’s done”. Chip loves the feel of a pristine book and the smell of vintage books.

On caring for books Chip says he washes his hands before handling any of his books and says he requires his children wash their hands before touching his books.

Sam said he had read a New York Times article on people wrapping a book in plastic and putting it in the freezer to kill any living bugs that might be in the pages. Peter quipped he now had another place in the house to store books.

This is a photo of the panel:

I wound up by listening to Louise Penny and S.A. Cosby talk about their books which have been nominated for the 2026 Anthony Best Hardcover Novel.

They are skilled speakers who have clearly spoken often about their books.

With regard to his book King of Ashes Shawn recounted an anecdote about crematorium operators as a creamatorioum is featured in the book. In real life he said he asked an operator if gangsters had ever asked him to dispose of a body. He was surprised when the operator said three times. He turned them down. 

Louise spoke of the challenge of how to make writing about the decent interesting. Armand Gamache and the residents of Three Pines are decent people. She said it is much easier to write about the cynical and the cruel.

On the way out I picke up my two free books from the Book Bazaar. I chose books by two authors I have not read. They are Laws of Solomon by Eriq La Salle and The Vanishing Place by Zoë Rankin.

MY BOUCHERCON 2026 (DAY ONE)

MY BOUCHERCON 2026 (DAY ONE) -

I am at my first Bouchercon in Calgary with almost 1,400 other registrants. It is being held in the heart of Calgary at the Telus Convention Centre. 

I had a good day.

After registering I took some time to look through the binder handed out with all the details of the conference. It is 144 pages.

I randomly spoke with someone sitting beside me. It was Shelley Marsh from northeast Florida. She has written a series called the Estate Sale Mysteries. We spoke about estate sales. I said in Canada, at least Saskatchewan, does not have estate sales. Saskatchewan does not have companies conducting estate sales.

I went to the media room where the Crime Writers of Canada is set up and met Ludvica Boota, the executive director. We have talked several times about the selection of jurors for the CWC Awards of Excellence but had never met in person. She is such a vibrant positive person.

I spoke with Erik DeSouza who is moderating a panel for a game, Three Truths And a Lie, in which I am one of the participants. I wrote up three truths about myself. Just before we start tomorrow morning he will give me a lie. Audience members will try to detect which of my four statements is a lie. I am not sure if I want to be a successful liar.

This afternoon I attended a panel session titled Welcome to Canada: Five Canadian Writers Debate, Politely of Course. Lisa Bush from Calgary moderated. The panelists were Iona Whishaw, Madona Skaf-Koren, Mike Martin and Randy McCharles. A photo of the panel is below.

They talked about the settings of their mysteries in central British Columbia, Ottawa, Grand Bank in Newfoundland and Calgary.

Iona spoke of the ever changing moods of the lake where her mysteries take place.

Mike mentioned the fog of Grand Bank and spoke of Sgt. Windflower emerging from the fog to speak to him.

Madona referred to the canals of Ottawa providing boating experiences in the summer and skating in the winter.

On her inspiration Iona said she learned a year before her mother died at 86 that her mother had worked in British Intelligence in World War II. Iona’s sleuth, Lane Winslow, worked in British Intelligence before coming to B.C.

I asked if any had been encouraged by publishers to set their books in the United States. Iona said an unnamed American publishing agency had told her she would need to set a book in America if she wanted American readers as Americans are not interested in mysteries set outside the U.S.

Mike said with the current dual streams of traditional publishing houses and self-publishing it has not been an issue the last 10 years.

As I expected all were polite.

My second panel of the day was titled Best 2025 Humour Mysteries / Thrillers.

Caro Ramsey from Scotland was moderator. The panelists were Cathy Ace, Lisa Harkrader and Rob Osler. They were a delightful witty group.

Caro started by going through all the Awards won by the other panelists and ended the review by saying she has never won any awards though she has been nominated multiple times.

On who they liked for humor in the last year both Cathy and Rob mentioned Carl Hiassen’s latest book, Fever Beach.

On setting up humour Lisa, who has written numerous books for the 10-12 year age group, spoke of creating a character who was a dung farmer from generations of dung farmers. She said Grade 5’s loved it.

She said she had a superhero called Beanman. She rhetorically asked what super power could a bean have? The room erupted in laughter. She said indeed he would have a powerful wind.

I am looking forward to Day Two.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr (Part II)

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr (Part II) - In Part I of my review Bernie Gunther returns to the Eastern Front. He is checking out reports of mass graves of Polish Army officers. While investigating he gets involved in a local investigation of the murder of a pair of German soldiers.

Forensic experts from all over Europe and the Polish Red Cross come to excavate and study the buried bodies of the Polish officers. The Russians have developed a method of entombing mass graves with sand to prevent the decomposing bodies from damaging the environment. 

Dr. Marianne Kramsta, a beautiful German forensic doctor, arrives to assist in the investigation of the mass grave. As with every other German officer Bernie is smitten. 

She practises forensic medicine because it is not political. Unlike other areas of medicine taken over by fascist ideals she says “[T]heory and opinion have no place beside the dissecting table”.

Standing with her in the Cathedral Church of the Assumption in Smolensk, Bernie muses as he watches the Germans and Russians praying in the church:

Either way, God was going to have to choose sides and choose soon: the godless communists or the blaspheming Germans. Who would be God with a choice like that?

I wondered what would happen to this romance. Bernie has had so many disappointments.

Bernie’s investigation involves another prominent group in Germany. Numerous high ranking Army officers are members of the Prussian aristocracy. The “vons” and the “zus” are elitist, effortlessly arrogant and condescending. Few are devoted Nazis but they are quite willing to lead the Nazi war of conquest.

Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge commands Army Group Centre. He is a professional who has adapted to the extreme warfare of the Eastern Front.

I had read of Hitler buying the loyalty of Generals with gifts of money and land. Bernie is not surprised by what is given to Von Kluge.

Kerr has a great talent for weaving a plausible murder mystery into a plot concentrated on one or more of the great events and/or issues of World War II. The murder mystery and the major plot theme could be good stand alone books. Together they create great books.

The ending of A Man Without Breath was tense and involved yet more Nazi German leaders.

Several in the book, as others have in earlier books of the series, wonder how Bernie has survived the 11 years since the Nazis came to power with his unruly attitude to authority. Nazis were not noted for tolerance of the eccentric. Bernie lives because he is useful. Heydrich and Goebbels could easily have had him executed for his insubordination. Instead, they vest him with power far beyond his rank of Captain. Unlike the sycophants clustered around them they know he will find out the truth in an investigation not merely what subordinates think their superiors want to know.

The combatants on both sides of the Eastern Front have been so de-sensitized to death that they are indifferent to killing. Where Viktor Frankl, most prominently in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, said all life has meaning it is the reverse on the Eastern Front. 

It has been eighty-three years since the events explored in A Man Without Breath. I fear our current world is getting de-sensitized to death.

While each of the books featuring Bernie is hard to read because of the powerful descriptions of violence and vile human behaviour, A Man Without Breath may be the most difficult. I will read more of Bernie but I need a break from his life.

****

Kerr, Philip – (2004) - Dark Matter; (2016) - March Violets; (2016) - The Pale Criminal; (2016) - A German Requiem; (2016) - Berlin Police and the Holocaust - Part I and Part II;  (2016) - Comparing Serial Killers in Three Totalitarian States; (2023) - The One From the Other; (2023) - A Quiet Flame; (2024) - If the Dead Rise Not; (2026) - Field Gray; (2026) - Prague Fatale; (2026) - A Man Without Breath - Part I and Part II

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr (Part I)

(33. - 1322.) A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr (Part I) - In 1943 Bernie Gunther is involved with situations which actually occurred in Nazi Germany and Russia that go beyond ironic, surpass the surreal and reach the absurd.

He has left the Berlin Police Homicide Department to join the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau. They are tasked with investigating and prosecuting crimes committed by and against German soldiers. A soldier on the Eastern Front convicted of rape and murder might be executed. The murders of hundreds of thousands of Jews by SS special action units on the Eastern Front are outside the Bureau’s jurisdiction. Thus the absurdity that an individual soldier might be prosecuted but the Holocaust is ignored.

While carrying out an investigation Bernie is present at the protests outside the Jewish Welfare Office on Rosenstrasse. Hundreds of well dressed women, the non-Jewish wives of Jewish men, are publicly protesting the arrest and planned deportation of their husbands. Nazi leadership, calculating the consequences of beating or prosecuting or killing them, take the easy way out by releasing the men. It is absurd that Nazi leaders who killed millions retreat from the protests of wives.

Invited to a Jewish family meal after the husband, Dr. Meyer, was released Bernie is injured when a British bomb destroys the apartment. I say it is ironic not absurd that Bernie is rescued from the rubble by “lads from the Gestapo”.

Bernie returns to the Eastern Front where existence is surreal. His superior, Judge Johannes Goldsche, has a delicate mission for him. Some human bones have been discovered near Smolensk in the Katyn Wood. The Germans stationed there suspect a mass grave. For two years there have been reports that the Russians conducted mass executions of captured Polish officers. Are the bones from Polish officers or are they from one of the several alternatives? There are an abundance of mass graves in Russia.

A Signals Unit of the Army is stationed next to Katyn Wood. Bernie stays with them as he quietly seeks information.

Two members of the Signals Unit are murdered. Unable, as always, to stop being a detective, he aids the investigation into their deaths.

On Bernie’s return to Berlin he is summoned to see Dr. Goebbels, the Minister of Public Enlightment and Propaganda. Goebbels sees the immense propaganda value in proving thousands of Polish officers were murdered by the U.S.S.R. He provides Bernie with “letters patent” to act as his plenitpotentiary. An independent inquiry into the deaths will be conducted. For the second time Bernie will personally represent one of the highest leaders in the Nazi Party in an investigation.  Previously, in Prague Fatale it had been Reinhard Heydrich.

The Eastern Front is hell on earth. The Russian war machine is grinding down the German Army. Behind the front line Russians are treated cruelly. German soldiers constantly fear partisans. The Eastern Front brings out the worst in everyone.

Bernie is no exception. I admire Bernie’s stubborn integrity but even his fierce personality is no match for the Eastern Front. It was depressing and, all too realistic, to see Bernie reduced to expediency.

Part II of the review will examine the unfolding of the two investigations.

****

Kerr, Philip – (2004) - Dark Matter; (2016) - March Violets; (2016) - The Pale Criminal; (2016) - A German Requiem; (2016) - Berlin Police and the Holocaust - Part I and Part II;  (2016) - Comparing Serial Killers in Three Totalitarian States; (2023) - The One From the Other; (2023) - A Quiet Flame; (2024) - If the Dead Rise Not; (2026) - Field Gray; (2026) - Prague Fatale

The Rule of Law and China

Desmond Shum Photo: Jonty Davies

Red Roulette by Desmond Shum provides a powerful story of what happens in a nation that is not governed by the Rule of Law. In Canada and other Western democracies citizens and governments must abide by constitutions and statutes and the interpretations by the courts of a country. In Communist China there is only the pretence of the Rule of Law. It is the Communist Party currently dominated by its General Secretary, Xi Jinping, which decides what is the law of the nation. 

The Rule of Law can be an abstract principle. I find examples best illustrate the application of principles. Shum provides examples of how it is the Party, rather than the Rule of Law, which controls China.

In Canada statutes are carefully drafted to be as precise as possible so that they can be clearly understood and consistently interpreted. Canadians, with the aid of lawyers and judges, can be confident that they can rely on the provisions of statutes being applied by the courts.

In China, Shum explains that statutes have a lot of “gray” in them which makes it impossible for the Chinese people to know how the laws, especially in business, will be applied.

There is no independent judiciary to provide a check on the Party.

Even worse, when new laws are passed they are generally “retrospective” rather than “prospective”. In Canada it is the reverse. The problem with “retrospective” laws is that people, in particular, businessmen make decisions based on the law at the time of a decision. 

Even if laws are not changed, the Party in China has the power to require private companies to share or give up ownership of ventures to state owned entities.

If laws are subsequently changed to negatively impact existing business decisions or the Party can involve itself in successful companies it is hard to convince businesses to invest in such an arbitrary country.

With the law so “flexible” in China it is essential for business people to have good and close relationships with the “red aristocracy”, high ranking members of the Party and their families, so that laws are not changed to their detriment and interpretation of “gray” laws on corruption are not applied to them negatively.

In Red Roulette Shum and his wife, Whitney, cultivated a close relationship with Auntie Zhang, the wife of Wen who became the Premier of China. Establishing and maintaining such relationships inevitably involves payments or advantageous business opportunities.

Under the Rule of Law statutes apply to all citizens. I acknowledge there is some discretion in Canada but I have confidence no class of Canadians is exempted from the law.

In Communist China the “princelings”, the families of high ranking Party officials, do not face the same consequences as common folk. Shum describes how Li Peiying, a non-princeling, was convicted of corruption and executed by a bullet to the back of the head but nothing happened to a princeling participating in another corrupt venture at the same time..

Shum stated “the courts functioned as a tool of Party control”.

So far the Communist Party of China has allowed enough economic opportunity for the non-princelings that the economy can flourish and resentment towards the princelings is muted.

When there is no Rule of Law with regard to enforcement of criminal law, especially corruption statutes, everyone lives with an element of fear. Once again, connections with the elite can reduce the fear but never eliminate the anxiety.

Whitney used her connections to prosper, probably to the status of billionaire, and vowed not to make dirty business deals.

However, when unwanted public attention was brought upon the wealth of the Wen family by the New York Times and the Party negatively reacted it was Whitney not Auntie Zhang who was sacrificed.

With regard to criminal charges under the Rule of Law you are entitled to know the charges and have a trial.

Where there is no Rule of Law you can simply be “disappeared” as Whitney was taken from her office in 2017.

Chinese laws requiring the police holding someone to release or formally arrest the suspect are circumvented by shuanggui which:

…. allows investigators to hold people suspected of violating Party regulations. But shuanggui is not limited by any law. Technically, detentions can last forever.”

If a billionaire can be “disappeared” ordinary citizens live at constant risk.

Will the system change?

In 1215 English Barons met with King John at Runnymede and compelled him to sign the Magna Carta which significantly limited the power of the King. 

Among the provisions, as set out in an article on the LawNow website, were:

Clause 39 of the document provided that “no free man” (at the time, this mainly meant the barons) could be imprisoned, lose his possessions or be “deprived of his standing in any way … except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land”.

Its concluding phrase – that no one could be punished or penalized except “… by the law of the land” – is perhaps the most significant of all, both in relation to criminal law and indeed, to our entire system of governance. This concept describes the Rule of Law, which underlies our form of democracy and law: the government, at whatever level and through whatever agency, may only act against a citizen where the law gives it authority to do so. Most important for criminal law, these words meant the state could only imprison or otherwise punish individuals where properly enacted legal provisions say this is possible. Arbitrary and illegal detention and imprisonment would not be tolerated any longer; citizens were no longer subject to being locked up simply because the king or queen took a disliking to their words or actions.

Other provisions established jury trials, that judges be qualified and the requirement that evidence be produced at trials.

Magna Carta was effectively the start of the Rule of Law in England. While the Charter was subsequently challenged the absolute power of the monarchy was at an end.

I think the “princelings” will some day compel the General Secretary of the Communist Party to share power and recognize property and personal rights.

I do not see the Rule of Law coming to China in the near future.

****

Shum, Desmond - (2026) - Red Roulette

Red Roulette by Desmond Shum

(31. - 1320.) Red Roulette by Desmond Shum - Shum grew up in a family both cursed and blessed by the Communist Party of China. His paternal grandfather, a distinguished lawyer, declined to leave the mainland in 1949 when the Communists took over, trusting in the Party’s socialist rhetoric. The Party took away his assets and left him humiliated. His maternal grandfather moved to Hong Kong at the takeover and sent money regularly back to his grandmother gaining status and protection for her, even during the Great Cultural Revolution, as she was associated with “patriotic overseas Chinese”.

Ill-treated by his parents, Shum grew up in Hong Kong. For much of his schooling he was focused on sports, he was a Chinese giant at 6’5”, rather than academics. Seeking the status that comes from an elite education he studied hard to get into Queen’s College.

From their struggles on the mainland Shum and his parents were frugal in ways beyond money. They never wasted food. 

In 1989, just after the Party’s brutal crackdown on student protesters, Shum moved to the United States to attend the University of Wisconsin.

In 1994 he joined private equity firm, ChinaVest, seeking to become part of China’s economic boom.

He soon learned of the corruption within the Chinese government needed to facilitate business:

For me, Robertson’s cultivation of Feng Bo peeled back the curtain on the inner workings of a political system that mouthed Communist slogans whilte the families of senior officals gorged themselves at the trough of economic reforms. These sons and daughters functioned like an aristocracy, they intermarried, lived lives disconnected from those of average Chinese, and made fortunes selling access to their parents, inside information, and regulatory approvals that were keys to wealth.

Shum’s book confirmed the importance of guanxi (connections) described in the crime mystery stories of Xiaolong featuring Inspector Chin during this era.

When he returned to China to live in Beijiang he found himself at a disadvantage. He did not know how the new China worked and lacked connections. Both were essential to exploiting the tradeoff the Party provided:

....give us your freedom and we’ll let you make money.

After a faltering start in business he met The Lady Chairman Whitney Duan (Duan Zong), a powerhouse of a woman who had worked her way from the coastal province of Shandong to Beijiang. Her company, Great Ocean, engaged in real estate developments and importing IBM computers. She stood out in the male dominated business world of China. 

To succeed in China connections with the Party leadership were vital. Whitney had an elite connection through her friendship with Auntie Zhang, the wife of Wen Jiabo who became Chinese Premier, the second most important position in China.

Trained as a geologist Auntie Zhang was known as the “Diamond Queen” for her role in re-establishing China’s jewelry industry. 

While her husband devoted himself to work, Auntie Zhang was eager to do business.

Their children were avaricious, eventually becoming billionaires.

By 2003 Whitney was Auntie Zhang’s “closest female companion” and they had opened an office together.

Shum recounts vividly the intrigues in China’s red aristocracy as its members compete for riches and power. Conflicts in families are inevitable.

Their lives changed when they were able to purchase a small share in Ping An, a giant insurance company. They borrowed $12 million. They held their shares despite a twelve fold increase in value after the company went public in Hong Kong because “China’s controls on the movement of capital banned the sale of Chinese stock overseas”.

When the company was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange the price went up to twenty-six times the value of their original shares and they cleared over $300 million.

Shum believes “that luck lies at the heart of most fortunes”. When they invested in Ping An they did not knowit was going to go public. 

Shum led the way in their next venture, a logistics hub at the Beijiang airport. Completing the approval process and building the hub took Shum’s people skills, great persistence and some help from their connections in the Party. Shum needed 150 chops (“Chinese seals that are used in lieu of a signature”) in the process and he led the way in getting almost every chop.

Business was unfriendly to family life. Most days he was circulating through offices working out problems. Almost every night he was meeting lower level officials who could keep a project on time or stall it. They would gather to eat and drink for hours. The amount of alcohol consumed was breathtaking.

They made almost $200 million on the project.

Their crowning project was a luxury real estate development in downtown Bejiang in which they combined their experience in luxury hotels and buildings around the world with great designers. It was called Genesis.

As they progressed they believed for a time the Party was ready to adjust governance and control to give some freedom. The opposite proved true. When the Party perceived its control was threatened it acted decisively. Individuals not part of the Red aristocracy would be sidelined and jailed in corruption investigations. State controlled companies demanded control or at least shares in private companies.

They reserved for themselves the 10,000 square foot penthouse in their hotel/condo building. Among its perks was an indoor pool.

When the NY Times ran a front page story that the Wen family was worth almost $3 billion Auntie Zhang sacrificed Whitney. It was Whitney practising “yiqi, the code of brotherhood”.

Shum describes how Xi Jinping maunouvered himself into becoming China’s leader as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Though Wen supported Xi, the family, caught up in the turmoil over their wealth, “ ‘donated’ all of their assets to the state in exchange for a guarantee that they wouldn’t be prosecuted”.

I felt I was reading a real life version, on a grander scale, of the fierce business and personal battles in Hong Kong 40 years earlier described in Noble House by James Clavell. 

The heavy hand of the party and the corrupt actions of high ranking families would seem bound to limit economic success but China has continued to thrive.

Shum has abundant anecdotes and brief histories of the participants while he keeps driving the narrative. 

What happened to Shum and Whitney will be discussed in my next post.