Yan Qicheng: The Crime-Busting Series (Five-Book Set)

This five-book set includes The Downfall of the Northeast Wolf, Crackdown on the Underworld, Snow Wolf Operation, Four Brothers, and Brothers in Black and White.

The Downfall of the Northeast Wolf: It was sometime around midnight on Lunar New Year’s Eve in 1998. The criminal investigation squad received an emergency call: two armed robbers had broken into a residential home. They were masked and carrying a semiautomatic rifle and a modified-caliber pistol. The case was so serious that no one had time to think about the holiday. While festive lights shone across the city, the detectives began their investigation. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, they caught the two criminals in Gongzhuling, more than a thousand li away.

Crackdown on the Underworld: On a chilly early-spring night, the Guan Sheng Tower was still crowded with visitors. After all, it was the best place to spend an evening in Chuanjiang, especially for newcomers. A couple from the Northeast stood nearby, pointing toward the winding Jialing River, which looked like a ribbon of light beneath the night sky. They argued over where the Yangtze River began, their accents clearly different from the local one. Shang Keren leaned close to Liu Tiejun and said, “When fellow townsmen meet, they’re moved to tears. Why don’t you go have a chat?”

Snow Wolf Operation: Two wolves emerged from the Phantom Valley in Afghanistan. Someone gave them the codename “Snow Wolf.” From the Pamir Plateau to the Luohu Customs checkpoint in Hong Kong, they kept a watchful eye on mainland China. They were not only spies but professional assassins, enemies of humanity’s brutal society. From a luxury hotel at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains to homes in a small town in eastern Xinjiang, from County T to City F, from the First Great Pass to the beautiful coast of City D, from Building 101 in City J to the National Stadium, wherever the Snow Wolves went, crime followed crime, and bloodshed followed bloodshed.

Four Brothers: A case broke out in Chunjiang when a drug dealer shot and killed a police officer, then fled to the train station. Public Security Bureau Chief Lü Fan ordered the city’s police to surround and kill the dealer. During the search afterward, they found the dealer’s phone. One number caught Lü Fan’s attention: it was the office number of Zhi Dechang, his childhood friend, who had grown up in the same residential compound and was now chairman of the Hongye Group. Lü Fan’s ex-wife, Nangong Yan, the woman he still loved, was the reporter covering the case.

Brothers in Black and White: This book follows the fate of three generations of police officers in the Cheng family, focusing in particular on the growth of the brothers Cheng Kun and Cheng Peng. After their parents divorced, the two brothers grew up in different environments and took different paths in life. They received guidance from their elders and were influenced by underworld bosses; together with their own opportunities and choices, these forces shaped them like different pictures painted on a blank sheet. The worlds of black and white, justice and evil, clash fiercely across the realms of law, morality, and emotion, as well as in every corner of family and society, and in people’s beliefs, values, and traditions.