The Heiress of Republican-Era China

To test the heart of the man she loved, Second Miss Shen thought she was being clever when she arranged a little drama. But she took it too far and got herself killed. After being reborn, she finds herself at the scene of a murder and somehow becomes the prime suspect. A wealthy heiress murdering her lover causes a sensation across Shanghai. Second Miss Shen encounters the man she once loved again, and this time he is her fiancé. The Shen family is wealthy, but several of its concubines, young masters, and young ladies covet the family fortune, making for complicated family dynamics. The Shen family's eldest son has an ambiguous relationship with a concubine. Second Miss Shen graduated from a missionary girls' school and is a socialite of the upper class. The men and women around her come from all sorts of backgrounds, and her admirers are an assorted, complicated bunch. When another murder takes place, Second Miss Shen spends every day on edge, convinced everyone is out to get her. In these troubled times, perhaps she should just find an honest man and marry him. After looking high and low, she settles on one. He's steady and dependable. He's a doctor who studied abroad and returned home, a scholarly sort with a refined, clean-cut appearance. But on their wedding night, she discovers that this man is nothing like the honest fellow she thought she was marrying. He's not the least bit scholarly or meek. Republican-era setting, mystery Theme: When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you.