Hour of the Rat by Lisa Brackmann isn’t the type of book I normally read (ie. not literary fiction), but sometimes I like to mix it up a little. I must admit that I was initially initially drawn to the book because of its cover. I became more intrigued when I discovered that it was about a female American Iraqi war vet living in Beijing. That kind of breaks the mold of most mystery/thrillers. A little more research revealed that Brackmann’s previous novel Rock Paper Tiger was a New York Times Notable book back in 2010 and was, in fact, on my To Be Read list.
Though the story in Hour of the Rat starts in Beijing, the protagonist, Ellie, spends most of the book travelling to different tourist and industrial locations in China. She is trying to find the brother of one her friends and uncovers the fact that he is an eco-terrorist of sorts. That is not good news in China.
The most engrossing aspect of the novel is the window it gives into the inner workings of post-Communist China. I was fascinated by the descriptions of the newly developed eco-tourist industry catering to both foreigners and young Chinese. It is a different world than that of Cultural Revolution China, and yet somethings stay surprisingly the same. This is complemented by a look into Chinese factories, the plight of farmers and the life of the new ultra rich.
Who would like this book? As I mentioned above, I do not generally read mysteries and find myself unable to evaluate it effectively on those terms. I will say that I found it a little long at times. But I would recommend it highly for its cultural insights into modern China. There are a great number of mystery series out there that are set in foreign cultures and do a magnificent job of immersing the reader in that culture. Donna Leon is famous for her portrayal of Venice, Barbara Nadel does the same thing for Istanbul and John Burdett take the police procedural to Bangkok. Brackmann’s books set in Beijing could certainly be added to this list. Definitely good vacation reading if you are headed to China or prefer armchair travel.
52 books or bust 
Interesting! This is not one I would normally pick up, but it sounds interesting.
I normally don’t read many mysteries either but this one sounds like something I might like. I’m interested in any books set in Asia for one thing. Thanks for the review!
That’s the ting about this book – there is so much going on culturally that it really gives insight into Chinese culture.
I think I actually become intrigued by books based on their covers more often than I’d like to admit 🙂 It’s always hard to review a genre that you’re not used to, because you have fewer other books to use as a standard, but I think you did a really nice job with this one.
I’m kind of obsessed with book covers. I’m from Canada but living in the UK and all the book covers are different over here and it has made me realize how much i judge a book based on its cover. For the record I generally don’t like the UK covers as much.