The Lacquer Screen
Robert van Gulik
 In 663, Judge Dee is the young magistrate in the fictional town of Peng-lai. On a visit to a senior magistrate he is shown a beautiful lacquer screen which is mysteriously altered to show a murder scene instead of a love scene. With the senior magistrate convinced he is going insane, a wealthy banker in town does kill himself, or is it murder? Judge Dee and his faithful servant Chiao Tai go undercover and join a gang of robbers to solve the case. The town of Peng-lai was the setting for other Judge Dee stories including: The Chinese Gold Murders, and three of the short stories from Judge Dee at Work. fr:Le Paravent de laque