{"id":25939,"date":"2026-03-15T17:22:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T21:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=25939"},"modified":"2026-03-22T10:37:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:37:53","slug":"snake-agent-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/25939","title":{"rendered":"Snake Agent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Snake Agent<\/em> (2005) Liz Williams<\/a> (Detective Inspector Chen #1)<\/p>\n

\"SnakeIt’s been more than half a decade since I last read this series, and I’d forgotten how much SF and horror it has. Probably because both are far less important than the fantasy and mystery, and neither the SF or the horror is written in a way that particularly bothers me, even though some of it could be read as dystopian.<\/p>\n

Detective Inspector Chen is the officer who takes all the mystical investigations in Singapore Three; his relationship with the goddess Kuan Yin has allowed him to go back and forth to Hell if it is needed to solve a crime. <\/p>\n

But he’s not so sure of how things stand with his goddess right now, and the case he is dealing with is far bigger than anyone thinks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see, it appears that the young lady in question did not in fact reach the Celestial Shores. A ghost-photograph of her has been taken, revealing her current whereabouts to be somewhere in the port area of Hell.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ling\u2019s mouth sagged open in shock. \u201cIn Hell? But the payments were made, the sacrifices impeccably ordered \u2026 I don\u2019t understand.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNeither does her mother.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As always my favorite characters are the teakettle and Zhu Irzh.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d suffered from this on and off since childhood, like the prick of a pin inside his mind, and had even gone so far as to visit a remedy maker. What had the old man called it? Conscience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With difficulty, Zhu Irzh found his voice, \u201cMa\u2019am?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI caught,\u201d the goddess said icily, \u201ca thought of murder.\u201d <\/p>\n

Zhu Irzh hastened to reassure her. \u201cA hypothesis briefly entertained, nothing more.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The trouble with hell, Zhu Irzh reflected bitterly, was not so much the palpable miasma of evil (with which he was, after all, ingrained) but the bureaucracy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Characters<\/strong>: Detective Inspector Chen Wei, Inari, Teakettle\/Badger, Sergeant Tzu Ma, Lao Li, Dr Nguyen, Citizen No Ro Shi, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, Former Bloodmaster Tso, First Lord of Banking, Dao Yi, Su Lo Ling, Mrs Tang, Pearl Tang, H\u2019suen Tang, Xi Fu, Kuan Yin, Fan?<\/p>\n

Cover by Jon Foster<\/p>\n

Publisher: Night Shade<\/p>\n

Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #1) It’s been more than half a decade since I last read this series, and I’d forgotten how much SF and horror it has. Probably because both are far less important than the fantasy and mystery, and neither the SF or the horror is written in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,292,2,204,8,42,41,25],"tags":[127,126,655],"class_list":["post-25939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-ebook","category-fantasy","category-good","category-mystery","category-police","category-reread","category-science-fiction","tag-detective-inspector-chen","tag-liz-williams","tag-violence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-6Kn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4219,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/4219","url_meta":{"origin":25939,"position":0},"title":"Snake Agent","author":"Michelle","date":"December 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams The Detective Inspector Chen series popped up as an Amazon ebook deal of the day, and I love this series so much I snatched them up as ebooks. (In my defense, my copies are all trade paperbacks.) Detective Inspector Chen is in charge of crimes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Snake-Agent.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":342,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/342","url_meta":{"origin":25939,"position":1},"title":"Snake Agent","author":"Michelle","date":"February 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams When I purchased this book I thought it was a mystery, after all, it's \"A Detective Inspector Chen Novel.\" And since I bought the book on-line, I couldn't see the cover clearly, so that didn't tell me anything either. I just knew it had come\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Snake-Agent.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12076,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12076","url_meta":{"origin":25939,"position":2},"title":"Snake Agent","author":"Michelle","date":"September 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams Detective Inspector Chen is in charge of crimes that stretch into Heaven and Hell (obviously, far more cases involve Hell over heaven) and as an occult practitioner whose patronage of the goddess Kuan Yin affords him a measure of protection when he has to travel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Snake-Agent-e1511012771669.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":384,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/384","url_meta":{"origin":25939,"position":3},"title":"The Demon and the City","author":"Michelle","date":"May 29, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The Demon and the City (2006) Liz Williams After reading The Snake Agent, I've been looking forward the reading the next Detective Inspector Chen book. (In fact, the paperback edition has been on pre-order for several months.) As with many authors I like, after getting a book, I'm hesitant to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Demon and the City","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/demon_and_the_city.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":662,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/662","url_meta":{"origin":25939,"position":4},"title":"Precious Dragon","author":"Michelle","date":"September 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Precious Dragon (2007) Liz Williams The third Detective Inspector Chen novel, it seems as if recent activities have brought Chen and Zhu Irzh to the attention of authorities, and they are charged with escorting the emissary from Heaven, Miss Qi, through Hell. Meanwhile, an old woman arranges the marriage of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Asian"","block_context":{"text":"Asian","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/asian"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/precious_dragon.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2358,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2358","url_meta":{"origin":25939,"position":5},"title":"The Iron Khan","author":"Michelle","date":"April 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Iron Khan (2010) Liz Williams I stumbled across The Snake Agent in 2007, and since then have eagerly bought books in the Detective Inspector Chen series whenever they came out. However, at some point finding those books was getting to be more and more difficult. Scuttlebutt has it that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/Iron-Khan.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}