A Qin Dynasty Clerk Who Can Reconstruct Crime Scenes

Qin Law + Ancient-Era Criminal Investigation + Rise of a Low-Ranking Clerk + Evidence-Based Mystery

On the eve of the Qin unification, seven grain officials die overnight in a border commandery's county prison. Every statement points to Chen Shuo, who was caught red-handed. He's the lowest-ranking clerk in the archives, but he can reconstruct the last three seconds in which an inanimate piece of evidence was moved. The bloodied knife never touched the victims. The key to the sealed granary opened another door last night. All seven corpses have black sand on the soles of their feet, the kind found only in military camps. His ability can't read minds, and old objects or contact with multiple people can leave overlapping traces. He must use Qin law, forensic examinations, and public evidence to turn what he sees into a case file no one can overturn. From a murder case meant to silence witnesses at a granary to the embezzlement of military grain, border spies, and a network of forged evidence spanning multiple commanderies, Chen Shuo must make the powerful understand for the first time: the law isn't a blade in their hands. But after the first case is reopened, the last three seconds he sees on the county magistrate's seal turn out to come from an imperial prison thirty years in the future.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.