The Master of Rain

Shanghai, 1926: a sultry city lousy with opium, warlords, and corruption at the highest levels. Into this steamy morass walks Richard Field, an idealistic Brit haunted by his past and recently appointed to the international police. He’s not there long before called to the flat of a Russian prostitute, former daughter of privilege found sadistically murdered, handcuffed to her bed. When he discovers among her possessions a cryptic shipping log, he senses that this murder is more than a random crime of perverse passion. What unfolds is a searing story that propels Field into a confrontation with the city’s most ruthless and powerful gangster, and a dangerous attraction to another salacious Russian whose sordid connections seem destined to make her the next victim. Scintillating and subtle, The Master of Rain is a marvelous debut.

“"In this ambitious, atmospheric crime novel, a city on the brink is re-created with impressive diligence." --The New York Times "Bradby has done for Shanghai what Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles." Time "A great murder story." --Esquire "Should especially please fans of P.D. James and John le Carr”

"In this ambitious, atmospheric crime novel, a city on the brink is re-created with impressive diligence." --The New York Times

"Bradby has done for Shanghai what Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles." –Time

“A great murder story.” --Esquire

“Should especially please fans of P.D. James and John le Carré.” --New York Daily News

“This is an immensely atmospheric, gripping detective story with just the right mixture of exoticism, violence and romance.” --The Times (London)

“A satisfying feast for the mind and the senses.” —Charleston Post & Courier

“This well-conceived and –rendered novel is a brooding tale of lust, murder and corruption. . . . just what you want in a thriller.” —The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

“Tom Bradby’s The Master of Rain certainly makes him a candidate for eventual superstardom.” —Fort Worth Star Telegram

“Like a Russian nesting doll, the plot’s layers split to reveal new layers.” —Portsmouth Herald

Tom Bradby, a foreign correspondent for the British television network ITN, is the author of The Master of Rain and The White Russian. He has spent the last nine years covering British and American politics, as well as conflicts in China, Ireland, Kosovo, and Indonesia. While living in Hong Kong and writing this novel, Bradby researched historical records and archives of 1920s Shanghai. He now lives in London with his wife and three children.

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