A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel by Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang

Anyone who keeps even half an eye on the news from China may at least vaguely recall a series of strange news stories emerging in early 2012. There was some nutty mayor who was promoting a Maoist revival by teaching the citizens to sing Mao-era revolutionary songs. A British businessman was found dead in his hotel room and a woman was convicted of murdering him after a show trial in Hefei. Some guy tried to defect to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu and almost caused a big diplomatic incident but then walked out of his own accord, right past all the police sent to extract him, and took a plane to Beijing.