Yangsze Choo's tantalizing third novel, The Fox Wife, follows Snow, a fox in the guise of a human. She is as dangerous as she is alluring, and she is intent on having revenge on Bektu Nikan, a Manchurian photographer and hunter who killed her daughter. Meanwhile, when a courtesan's frozen corpse is found in an alley in Mukden, 63-year-old Bao Gong is called in to investigate. Bao suspects, from the description, that the man last seen with the dead woman was actually a fox. Bao has a special curiosity about fox tales, having grown up visiting a fox god's shrine with his nanny, and he collects cases that seem to involve fox mischief.
Chapters about Bao's investigation, told in the third person, alternate with Snow's unabashedly feminist first-person narration, creating momentum. While acknowledging the patriarchal norms of that time, Choo expands the sphere of women by granting attention to servants, foreigners, a medium, and the elderly--women looked down on by society. For instance, Tagtaa, a Mongolian concubine's daughter and Bao's childhood friend and crush, becomes a key character. Tagtaa is one of the rare women whose feet were not bound; Snow stands out for the same reason.
As Bao's suspicions start to focus on Snow, their two story lines move ever closer together with mounting suspense. The multilayered details of everyday life in early 20th-century China and the evocative metaphors make for vivid, realistic scene-setting. Choo (The Night Tiger; The Ghost Bride) contrasts that air of realism with delicious hints of the supernatural. Fans of Lisa See and of Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife will fall in love with the historical magic and mystery. --Rebecca Foster