Hanging Devils (Penguin)

Inspired by real events, Hanging Devils is a thriller about the struggle lawyer Hong Jun underwent in the first case he took after returning from the United States and opening a law office in Beijing in the early 1990s.

The case is about Li Hongmei, a beautiful woman, who was raped and killed on a State-owned farm in northeast China. The police caught a suspect, who has a rich brother and the latter was prepared to pay whatever it took to save his sibling. He engaged Hong as the defense lawyer. To uncover the truth, Hong challenged those who put personal ambition above the rule of law and those who try desperately to hide the sins of the past.

The writer, He Jiahong, is an expert on criminal justice and teaches at Renmin University of China.