Mystery and investigations + female coroner + trust and redemption + high-IQ battle of wits + political intrigue + fantasy setting + scientific sleuthing
Shen Qingya, a female coroner with a hereditary mastery of forensic arts, has been relegated to working at a funeral home simply because she is a woman. She is ordered to examine the massacre of an entire princely household.
All the evidence points to a raid by bandits, except that in the hand of one victim, an old prince obsessed with ancient bronzes and stone inscriptions, she finds a tightly clenched fragment of a half-moon jade pendant.
When she risks sneaking into the secret chamber of the prince's residence, she discovers that the complete pattern on the pendant exactly matches the location of a dragon-vein gold vault marked on the Map of Secret Routes from the Previous Dynasty. Gu Lin, the cold-faced judicial officer ordered to oversee the case, has repeatedly made things difficult for her. The other half of the pendant hangs at his waist.
