Met een voorwoord van Ranpo Edgawa (vergelijk Edgar Allan Poe), een inleiding van Robert van Gulik en commentaar van de vertaler. Uitvoerig geïllustreerd met circa 20 platen (één meer dan de Engelse uitgave). Ingenaaid met een stevige kleurenomslag en geïllustreerde schutbladen. Met achterin geplakt, op de colofon-pagina een zegel met het stempel van Robert van Gulik als Kao Lo-P'ei (stempel anders dan in Dee Goong An).
Illustratie en beschrijving zijn afkomstig van Pim Koldewijn.

Nowadays readers of detective stories often voice the complaint that it becomes increas- ingly difficult to find a crime novel that brings something entirely new.

'The Chinese Maze Murders' answers this demand. It introduces a new type of detective, the long-bearded 'Judge Dee', working in a new setting -- that of the an- cient Chinese empire.

Judge Dee, the master-detective who in this novel solves simultaneously three intri- cate criminal cases is a historical person -- a 7th century Chinese magistrate famous as a detector of crime, whose name to-day still is as familiar in China as that of Sherlock Holmes is with us.

This book, describing some of his amaz- ing exploits, supplies curious data on ancient Chinese crime detection, and at the same time presents a vivid picture of Chinese life as it was. It takes us to the mansions of the mighty, to secret haunts of vice and violence, to the hermitage of a sage, and to the austere tribunal where Judge Dee patiently unravels the bewildering tangle of political intrigue, cruel crime and forbidden love.

This tale of terror and suspense is based on genuine ancient Chinese plots, and written in the traditional style of ancient Chinese crime novels.

The author is exceptionally qualified for writing these 'Judge Dee Mysteries'. A

distinguished diplomat, he passed the greater part of his career in the Far East, and is internationally known as an authority on Chinese and Japanese literature and history. How well he succeeded in catching Chinese style and atmosphere in this novel is proved by the fact that the Chinese version pub- lished in 1953 in Singapore was sold out in a few months.

Two more 'Judge Dee Mysteries', The Chinese Bell Murders and The Chinese Lake Mur- ders are now being prepared for the press.

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R. H. van Gulik was born in 1910 in Holland. He studied Law and languages in the universities of Leyden and Utrecht, and in 1935 took his doctor's degree in Oriental languages on a thesis on horse-cult in India, Tibet, China and Japan. Having in the same year entered the Netherlands Foreign Service, he was appointed Secretary of the Netherlands Legation in Tokyo, then of the Netherlands Embassy in Chungking. There- after he served as counsellor of the Nether- lands Embassies in Washington, Tokyo and New Delhi. Now he is Netherlands Minister to the Libanon, concurrently accredited to Syria. Dr. van Gulik has published a number of books and articles on Chinese, Japanese and Indian art, literature and history.

W. van Hoeve Ltd.-The Hague, Bandung