The Shanghai Puzzle

Shi Cheng is a cult cycle of Chinese detective novels focused on the eccentric mathematician Chen Juez. The cycle includes 4 novels and a collection of short stories, of which the first 2 books have been translated into Russian.

In 1994, Shanghai police arrived at the Obsidian Manor after a call. They found five corpses, as well as businessman Gu Yunhua, who, within five minutes, was caught five kilometers from the crime scene. He was declared guilty, sent to a psychiatric clinic, and committed suicide.

Twenty years later, Gu Yunhua’s son invites a group of experts—including a psychiatrist, a forensic psychologist, an illusionist, a physicist, and a captain of the criminal investigation—to investigate this mysterious mass murder again. They also invited the brilliant mathematician Chen Juez, who is convinced that the key to the case lies in the strange magic fairytale that Gu Yunhua wrote before his death.