Fate by Zhou Haohui is a fast-paced suspense novel set in China in which the police and the perpetrator race each other to find answers to cases from long ago.
Zhao Haohui’s Death Notice trilogy is one of the bestselling crime series in China. Fate is the second book. I would recommend reading the first book (Death Notice) before reading Fate or my review of Fate.
Location: mostly set in Chengdu, China
Fate Synopsis
Chengdu, China: The vibrant capital of Sichuan Province is suddenly held hostage when a shocking manifesto is released by an anonymous vigilante known as Eumenides. It is a bold declaration of war against a corrupt legal system, with Eumenides acting as judge and executioner. The public starts nominating potential targets, and before long hundreds of names are added to his kill list.
Eumenides’s cunning game has only just begun. First, he publishes a “death notice,” announcing his next target, the crimes for which the victim will be punished, and the date of the execution. The note is a deeply personal taunt to the police. Everyone knows who is going to die and when it’s going to happen, but the police fail to stop the attack. The 4/18 Task Force, an elite group of detectives and specialists, is assembled to catch Eumenides before he strikes again. In the process, they discover alarming connections to an eighteen-year-old cold case, and they find out that some members of the team have much to hide.
The follow-up to Death Notice, the international crime-writing phenomenon, is a high-octane, high-concept cat-and-mouse thriller that adds an exhilarating new gear to the police procedural.
Book review
Fate picks up where the previous book left off. It takes only a few pages to get into the story again. The cat-and-mouse game continues with one big difference: the perpetrator is given a voice early on. Because you know more about what’s going on, there is less mystery involved and the book reads more like part of a crime series. Then again, the author can hardly use the same concept twice.
Captain Pei’s new responsibilities seem to weigh him down. He is less effective than he was as the underdog in the police task force. Even though there are many skilled members in the task force, the other members seem to exist only in connection to Captain Pei this time around. Fate feels like a one man show. I prefer the interactions in book one, where the teamwork was more dynamic.
On the other hand, the interactions between Pei and Eumenides were of a good level; their intellect and role in the story are well matched. The cold cases and current cases are interesting. While reading, you want to find out what happened to the (cold) cases and why those involved covered up the true events. Everyone is looking for the same answers and some get them sooner than others. The hints are well-timed and none too soon. You’ll probably figure out some things before the Captain does, but you won’t outspeed Captain Pei all that much.
By the end of the book, all your questions have been answered, but you are left with a premonition of what is to come in the third part. Fate is a good suspense novel that won’t fail to entertain you.
I am glad I discovered this writer from China. Where it is sometimes a challenge to understand what moves people in books by foreign writers, that is not the case with Fate. The setting is Chinese, but the story could take place anywhere.
Interested?
Get your copy of Fate from Amazon.
Book details
Title: Fate
Author: Zhou Haohui
Translator: Zac Haluza
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Pages: 464
ISBN (13): 9781838930806
Publication date: 10 December 2020
About the author and translator
Zhou Haohui was born in 1977 and lives in Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. His Death Notice trilogy is China’s bestselling crime series. An online TV drama based on the novels has received more than 2.4 billion views, making it one of China’s most popular online shows ever.
Zac Haluza is the translator of the Death Notice series. He began his translation career in 2014, when his translation of Shooting the Bull won third place in the English category of that year’s China International Translation Contest. His other published translations include Never Give Up on Yourself and a short story by Hugo-Award-winning sci-fi author Liu Cixin.
