ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃ

ən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃə ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃəl ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃən ʃ?

a young English woman in 1937. This is our first foray outside of the American borders

and a doozy of a story to boot. I'm so pleased to welcome as my guest Paul French,

the author of the best-selling book Midnight in Peaking, which also won an Edgar Award in 2013.

I appreciate your time today, sir. Thank you very much for inviting me.

There's so many compelling characters in this story you present, but none more so than the

city itself, Peaking, now known of course as Beijing. Before we get into the details in the

murder, tell us about Peaking China in 1937, specifically the Legation Quarter and the Badlands,

which play such prominent roles in this book. Yes, well, Peaking was not the capital of China in 1937.

Zhang Kai-yai-sheng, the leader of Nationalist China, had moved the capital to Nanjing down south.

So because Peaking was quite close to Manchuria, that the Japanese had already occupied in the

early 1930s, it had actually become somewhat of a frontier town. It was sort of the last stop

before you got to Japanese occupied China. In 1937, it wasn't so much a case of if Japan would

invade China. It was a case of when. So the city was an extremely nervous place. It was not the

capital of China. It was not the financial center or business center of China. That was

down south as well in Shanghai. But it was still a Chinese city and a very ancient Chinese city.

There were about 3 million people living there, which made it a fairly big city at the time.

Shanghai was a little bit bigger, but that was still a large city even by world standards.

And there were about 3,000 foreigners, non-Chinese living in the city and calling it home.

Now, even though the government had moved to Nanjing, many of the embassies, which were now

technically consulates, stayed in Beijing. And of course, they had always been in that city.

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