The Chinese Nail Murders

The Chinese Nail Murders is a gong'an detective novel written by Robert van Gulik and set in Imperial China. It is a fiction based on the real character of Judge Dee, a magistrate and statesman of the Tang court, who lived roughly 630-700 BC.

Plot introduction

Judge Dee and his four helpers solve the murders of an honored merchant, a master of martial arts, and the wife of a merchant, whose corpse has no head. Judge Dee soon comes under pressure from higher-ranking officials to end his investigation. Judge Dee refuses to give up until he has learned the whole truth.
A nail murder was a motif of crime in ancient China.
The case of the headless corpse was based on an actual 13th-century Chinese murder casebook.