To Derk Todd, Goran Eimear and all the other pioneers who almost got it Barry Hewart's third novel is another gem, continuing the adventures of the Worshipful Master Li, an aged sage "with a slight flaw in character" and his faithful assistant, Tenth Bull. This time, a pair of Chinese detectives investigate the murder of a venerable mandarin, committed by Zhi-mei, a ghoul, in daylight. Celestial Master, the empire's most respected Taoist, asks his old friend, Master Li, to investigate the matter. However, the Celestial Master himself becomes the prime suspect when he reveals that the killer used a fireball and then turned into a crane. Now Master Li and the Tenth Bull will have to go through forest villages and bandit-infested steppes, meet ghosts, wizards, dog brides, monsters, puppeteers, shamans, magical bird cages and, of course, the Eight Skilled Men, mysterious masked figures, who came from the very beginning of Chinese history and entered into an alliance with eight disgusting demons. A wonderfully written and humorously told story completes the cycle of adventures of Master Li and the Tenth Bull.Ver 1.0