Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the arc of Fate by Zhou Haohui.

4 star read- This is the second installment in the Death Notice series, which is a best seller book in China and which has already been turned into a tv series. I felt a bit daunted and uncomfortable at first due to the fact I have not read the first book but i think you would be much of much greater advantage if you read the first in the series. This follows a popular vigilante serial killer whom is on a rampage... whom is known as Eumindes which is named after the Ancient Greek Spirits who gives out what he calls Death Notices to people whom deserving of death, or those who have escaped Justice... so Eumindes have got himself a popular following. the original Eumindes is death but there is another one at the mix..

This is such a thrilling storytelling like wow this was so intense and thrilling recommend to all

4 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐

I loved this book! This year, I've made it my goal to read more Asian literature, so Zhou Haohui's mystery came in handy. Zhou is a bestselling author in China, and I've had the pleasure to see just why.

Fate is the second book in a series, but the first ne for me - and while it can definitely be read as a standalone, I wish I had read the first book prior to this one because it was a bit tedious at the beginning to get to know the characters. Anyway, the story is about the chase after Euminedes, an infamous serial killer whose skills could be described as admirable if they weren't so insidious. Adhering to the title of the first book, the killer issues Death Notices to his victims who he believes deserve to die for their crimes.

I enjoyed the edge-of-your-seat story as much as the setting - a major Chinese city. It was fascinating to "travel" during the time when it's impossible to physically go somewhere. It was quite a journey and I would highly recommend it.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

'It's your fate - it was set in motion eighteen years ago.'

Phew! This is the kind of fast-paced, edge-of-the-seat, 'what the heck is going on?' thriller that just sweeps you along. Most of the time it's a scramble to keep up with who is who, who was who, who might be who, and what they may or may not have done. But it's a crazy fun ride and it is the type of crime book that you can't quite decide if you want Eumenides caught or not.

If you haven't read book one in the series then you should. I guess this could read as a stand-alone, but there is so much background that it covers that it probably reveals more if you know what happened in 'Death Notice', although the basics are covered in flashbacks and recounting.

I genuinely have no idea what to expect from the third book, but I can't wait.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

I loved Death Notice, which got me really excited about Chinese fiction again. It's great to see so much genre fiction coming out of China now. So I was very excited to see the sequel out, despite the somewhat less enticing title.

It’s a tangled web of a plot, full of double crossing, unmasking, surprise deaths and other twists, but Zhou keeps the narrative clear and pacey. Scenes open with highly precise and filmic locations and times (‘29 October, 8am, a conference room in Chengdu criminal police headquarters’) which remind me of the opening scene of Psycho (‘Phoenix Arizona, Friday December the Eleventh, Two Forty-Three pm’). The narrative is built around uncovering several mysteries – not just who is Eumenides, but unravelling a number of events that took place in the past and working out how they are related the current events. The shadow of the past – and its fatalistic imprint on the present – is always there. This is a murderer driven by vengeance, after all. But happily this doesn’t make it too talky - Zhou has mastered the art of the Hollywood set piece.
The plot mostly unfolds through a series of discrete contrivances at a distinct location or event (a football match, say), featuring distinctive new or familiar characters (a fruit seller, a blind violinist, a teacher); with high stakes, high drama and a splattering of shootings, car crashes and dismembering, even if it’s not immediately obvious how it fits in with the wider narrative. Zhou is fantastically and gruesomely inventive – the ‘body in the bag’ trope used in Fate is one of the (pleasingly) nastiest I’ve ever read. Zhou also maximises the crime fiction form: the set pieces rely heavily on mystery men doing mysterious things, so much of the action unfolds with ‘a man’ or ‘the stranger’ (‘From inside Room 2107 a man watched the stadium’). At its best, such as when Eumenides appears out of nowhere in a room on CCTV footage, there’s a real creepy horror edge to the writing. This is brilliantly creepy, grisly writing.

It’s a tangled web of a plot, full of double crossing, unmasking, surprise deaths and other twists, but Zhou keeps the narrative clear and pacey. Scenes open with highly precise and filmic locations and times (‘29 October, 8am, a conference room in Chengdu criminal police headquarters’) which remind me of the opening scene of Psycho (‘Phoenix Arizona, Friday December the Eleventh, Two Forty-Three pm’). The narrative is built around uncovering several mysteries – not just who is Eumenides, but unravelling a number of events that took place in the past and working out how they are related the current events. The shadow of the past – and its fatalistic imprint on the present – is always there. This is a murderer driven by vengeance, after all. But happily this doesn’t make it too talky - Zhou has mastered the art of the Hollywood set piece.
The plot mostly unfolds through a series of discrete contrivances at a distinct location or event (a football match, say), featuring distinctive new or familiar characters (a fruit seller, a blind violinist, a teacher); with high stakes, high drama and a splattering of shootings, car crashes and dismembering, even if it’s not immediately obvious how it fits in with the wider narrative. Zhou is fantastically and gruesomely inventive – the ‘body in the bag’ trope used in Fate is one of the (pleasingly) nastiest I’ve ever read. Zhou also maximises the crime fiction form: the set pieces rely heavily on mystery men doing mysterious things, so much of the action unfolds with ‘a man’ or ‘the stranger’ (‘From inside Room 2107 a man watched the stadium’). At its best, such as when Eumenides appears out of nowhere in a room on CCTV footage, there’s a real creepy horror edge to the writing. This is brilliantly creepy, grisly writing.

It’s not all on Zhou, of course – Haluza’s translation is one of those quietly effective translations you don’t notice. The dialogue is naturally hard-boiled, the descriptive language creative, and he keeps the pace up. It’s a no-nonsense translation that really works and builds on the strengths of the original. It’s also helpful that the focus in Death Notice is really on the crime, not the politics or bureaucracy which some other crime works have led on, which keeps it much tighter in translation. We also know that changes were made to the text for the English language version of Death Notice and I assume this is the same for Fate; I’d love to know more about what changes might have been made, but the effect leads me to think they were smart choices.

It’s atypical from a Western genre perspective in terms of structure and character, but it works just as well. And while Pei Tao as a hero doesn’t seem to resonate on another level, Fate works best when it’s just straight police action and grisly murders. The musing on ‘fate’ itself towards the end, which tries to bring all the strands together, is a bit unconvincing, as is some of the cod psychology (particularly an odd excursion into heavy metal lyrics which feels like none of the characters has ever listened to heavy metal). And given the pat and icky way Zhou tackles the one sex scene, where a character has cold and gratuitous sex with his secretary while thinking about the time he saw his mother naked (he then kills himself, but not because of the sex), I’m quite pleased there’s not much in the way of sex or a romantic subplot for Pei Tao. A final criticism is that while it’s set in Chengdu, there’s almost no sense of place. It could be set anywhere, unless a lot of crime fiction that is deeply rooted in location. But that’s easily explained – it’s only set in Chengdu in the English version, a deliberate change for the translation. It’s a shame, as the hard-boiled feel should work perfectly with a Sichuan-spiced noir tone.

But I enjoyed Fate as much as I enjoyed Death Notice- it’s fun, creative and nasty, which is just what I want from a bit of crime fiction, and I can’t wait for the next one.

This book is the second in a trilogy of police procedurals set in the Chinese city of Chengdu. Much of it is linked to incidents in the first book, but these are fully explained as required so the book stands alone. Unsolved crimes from these previous events are essentially treated as cold case investigations but also provide motivation for those dealt with here. The primary link is the serial killer known as Eumenides, a former police officer who had become an ‘executioner’ of those people who, in his view, had committed crimes for which they had not been punished – regardless of any reason for the latter. The original Eumenides is dead, but had spent 18 years inculcating and training an heir to his mission.
Pei Tao, who had been a rookie at the beginning of the original murders, is now the new Captain of Police, tasked with ending the reign of terror. He knew the original murder and knows who the new one is but has no idea of his identity, appearance or Forensic characteristics. A cat and mouse game between them forms the core of the book. Various other crime fiction tropes are woven in: a locked room puzzle, a retired police officer with information who can’t be found, a crooked international company, and internet and security camera ‘spoofing, etc. The plot, as you can imagine is tortuous. It does all weave together logically but it is an intellectual challenge to maintain the different strands.
The book was originally published in China and has been translated very effectively, although there is a tendency to use tried and trusted phrases – such as the few that I have sprinkled into this review – which gives it a rather overwrought feel at times.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Head of Zeus for an advance copy of Fate, the second novel in the Death Notice trilogy, set in Chengdu and featuring Captain Pei and the April 18th task force.

When Eumenides, a former friend of Pei, is exposed and commits suicide Pei disbands the task force and heads for home in Longzhou. He is stopped at the railway station with a transfer to Chengdu because his work isn’t over. Eumenides has left a protégé and he’s already started killing, meting out justice to those the courts can’t punish. The hunt is on for a clever killer who always seems one step ahead, so far ahead that he must be getting inside information.

I thoroughly enjoyed Fate which is a roller coaster of a read that seems to have it all, action, an incredibly clever plot, psychology and a duel between two equally smart contestants, Pei and Eumenides 2.0. Oh, did I mention the twists? Call me gullible, but the author caught me at every turn. I’d like to say that the plot is so absorbing and detailed that I lost my ability to think straight, but as I guessed one twist before the team, it’s because the author is the master of misdirection.

The plot covers a lot of ground as not only does the team have to identify and capture this new Eumenides, they have to solve several cold cases to get closer to him and his motive. It’s fascinating. There is great use of psychology in the case with team psychologist Ms Mu offering penetrating insights, although Pei is no slouch himself in the psychological warfare game. It adds to the practicality of the investigation and is all done matter of factly. The novel is set in 2002 so the technology is more rudimentary, there’s no mobile phone triangulation and the little CCTV footage is not very clear so it’s down to IP addresses, physical chases and psychology.

Fate is old fashioned to current Western crime fiction and much better for it in my eyes. The reader learns next to nothing about the personal life of the investigators or their thoughts outside the investigation, instead it concentrates on the plot, the perpetrator and the investigation. It had me hooked from the beginning which is a short recap of events from the first novel, Death Notice, and didn’t let go until the final page. It truly is a good read so I have no hesitation in recommending it.

This is the second in Zhou Haohui's Death Notice trilogy, a best selling book in China that has already been turned into a popular TV series. I have not read the first one, and immediately found myself feeling at a disadvantage, and whilst there is a brief summary at the beginning, it took me a little while to feel comfortable with what was going on, and slowly become familiar with the names of the characters and their roles. For that reason, I would recommend reading the first book, this would definitely put you at a greater advantage than me. The story focuses on a popular vigilante serial killer running rampant, known as Euminedes, named after the Ancient Greek spirits of vengeance, issuing Death Notices to individuals, murdering those deemed to be deserving of death, those that have evaded justice, acts that have built Euminides a popular following amongst the public.

It is now 2002, the original Euminides is now dead at the Jade Garden explosion, but he has spent years grooming a successor to take over. The Chengdu Police April 18 Task Force, led by the now transferred Captain Pei, assisted by Lieutenant Yin and supported by the technical surveillance officer, Zeng Rihua and the gifted psychologist, Ms Mu, now have the unenviable job of trying to identify the new Euminides who has begun issuing his own death notices, there are two students dead in a hotel suite, with a teacher who chopped off his hand to save the remaining student. It is clear he has no intention of stopping, as the police team go back to throw light on a hostage situation that arose in 1984 that culminated in a shooting, the grisly 1992 Bagman killing where the perpetrator was never identified, the disappearance of Captain Ding Ke, all events with connections to the present, along with further deaths at the Longyu Corporation after the killing of Mayor Deng.

Zhou Haohui's storytelling is tense, suspenseful and thrilling, there are twists galore, with the new Euminides always streets ahead of the police team, raising the strong possibility that he has an inside line to the April 18 police task force. Captain Pei and his team are strong and determined in the face of the obstacles they face in their inquiry, I was particularly impressed with the contributions made by Ms Mu. This is a hugely entertaining and engaging trilogy set in China that held my interest completely once I became immersed, if only I had read the first and hadn't experienced difficulties at the beginning, otherwise it would have been a 5 star read. Many thanks to Head of Zeus for an ARC.