Publisher's Synopsis
A perfect mix between Chinese versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Silence of the Lambs. Why did he, who murdered his girlfriend's head teacher on Teacher's Day with his own hands, suddenly break out of prison on the same day that Fang Mu was to testify in court to spare him from the death penalty? Why does he, who has taken so many orphans under his wing to care for personally, frequently stare with sad, hollow eyes at a portrait of a deceased child? Deep within an underground labyrinth, a man is found electrocuted to death; high on the top shelf of a department store's stuffed animal display wall, a giant teddy bear suddenly begins to drip blood; a man's corpse is discovered, castrated, and with his arms around a sex doll whose clothing is completely intact.... Are they all part of a group of injured guinea pigs? Or are they themselves cruel, perverted killers? Is this an age-old theater, a purging remedy for redemption, or some sort of fiendish ritual? Fang Mu is once again pulled into a vortex of massacre. Does he allow this to happen out of a sense of duty? Or is there something else inside him, guiding him against his will? Through all his trials and tribulations, will Fang Mu comply with Teacher Qiao's final wish that he become a police officer, or will he return to the life of an ordinary citizen and never look back? This is a story about growing up. This is a story of self-redemption. This is a story that at times will leave you burning with anger, recoiling from fear, warming with hope, or brimming with sorrow. If you have read the first book in the series, Profiler, then Skinner's Box will lead you to discover a whole new side to Lei Mi's writing. Fang Mu is still Fang Mu, and the cases are still just as bewildering and complex. But this is an entirely different interpretation of the ugliness and evil of human nature and the criminal mind caught wandering back and forth between heaven and hell. Editorial Review ------------------------ Author Lei Mi has been called the king of the Chinese crime novel. Employed at China Criminal Police University as a teacher of criminal psychology, he has a clear insight into all sorts of criminal behavior. Early in 2007, with the publishing of the Psychological Criminals series (which, along with the prequel The Seven Readers, has been called the Fang Mu series by readers), this book's performance was no more than mediocre at first in a Chinese marketplace that had grown accustomed to European and American crime novels. Still, a small number of readers became deeply fascinated by it. Before they were formally published, the second book, Skinner's Box, and the third book, Blade of Silence, had already gained 600,000 fans by word of mouth alone. By December 2012, City Lights, the fourth book in the Psychological Criminals series, was hot off the press and had climbed straight to fifth place in Amazon China's new release rankings list in the suspense category. In this series of novels, you will read about an unprecedented new master sleuth. Using a deft pen planted firmly in the foundations of realism, a heavy flavor of the aesthetics of crime, trains of thought and reasoning that are totally different from what ordinary people might be used to, and reflections on ethics that are truly thought-provoking, the author has provided readers with a new perspective from which to understand a realistic version of China society.
