The Fox Wife

September 1, 2023

In Choo's 1908 Manchuria-set The Fox Wife, a young woman found dead in the snow is thought to be the victim of foxes who transform themselves into beautiful humans to lure the unsuspecting to their deaths; following the Netflix-slated The Ghost Bride and The Night Tiger, a Reese's pick. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2023 Library Journal

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 13, 2023
Choo (The Night Tiger) draws on Japanese folklore for a rich detective story involving fox spirits. In 1908 Manchuria, a fox spirit named Snow assumes a human form during her search for Bektu Nikan, a photographer responsible for her child’s death in a hunt he’d orchestrated. She takes a job as a servant for the matriarch of a medicine shop, whose grandson, Bohai, and his medical school friends have spent time with Bektu. One of the friends, Shirakawa, is also a fox and claims that Bektu fled to Japan. Bohai’s grandmother agrees to accompany Snow and the students there, unaware of the journey’s real purpose. Meanwhile, retired teacher and detective Bao Gong, who has a supernatural ability to discern lies and is fixated on fox spirits, is hired to identify a woman found dead in an alley. His investigations unveil links between the unidentified woman, Bektu, and a beautiful woman rumored to be a fox. As Bao unravels the threads of the mystery, Snow faces danger in Japan when she crosses paths with another fox she has long avoided. Choo’s writing is lush and the slow revelation of complicated relationships and reunions hum with tension. This is a treat.

December 15, 2023
The rich Asian tradition of fox folklore provides the backdrop for Choo's complex and atmospheric tale of identity and discovery set in early 1900s Manchuria. Snow (later also referred to as Ah San) narrates the story of her search for a shadowy figure--the photographer Bektu Nikan--during the waning days of the Qing dynasty. She crosses Manchuria and travels to Japan in her efforts to locate the man she believes is responsible for the death of her very young daughter. Snow's slow reveal of her trek and travails is often whimsical or wry and is particularly informative about the habits and practices of the shape-shifting foxes who are believed to appear in human form. Quite reasonably, this knowledge is derived from Snow's own experiences...as a fox. Running on an eventual collision course is the slowly evolving story of a private investigator, the aging Bao, whose initial assignment is to determine the identity of a woman whose body was found frozen and dead outside a restaurant. As he follows the scant clues in that case, he becomes more and more enmeshed in circumstances that lead him into the orbit of Snow and her growing posse of humans and foxes. (Events in Bao's early childhood have encouraged his belief in the presence of human-seeming foxes and have also left him with the personally and professionally helpful ability to discern when a lie is being told.) As the circuitous and alternating stories unfold and begin to converge, coincidence and historical events play out. Snow's difficulties as both a fox and a young woman in a man's world are clearly drawn, as is the pathos of Bao's situation as a gentle soul who's always been in search of something or someone. An intriguing vulpine mystery worth the suspension of disbelief.

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Starred review from January 1, 2024
In early 1900s Manchuria, aging detective Bao is enlisted to uncover the identity of a courtesan found frozen in a doorway. Superstitious locals claim she was lured to her death by a fox in human form. The case has special significance for Bao, who has unofficially investigated rumors about foxes since a childhood visit to a shrine that may have resulted in the gift of telling truth from lies. Elsewhere, a mysterious woman named Snow joins the household of a family whose eldest sons seem fated to die before age 24. Unbeknownst to the family, Snow has come to town with ulterior motives--she's seeking revenge for the death of her daughter. These two seemingly disparate stories soon converge as Snow and Bao seek the same man, and people from their pasts reemerge in surprising ways. Equal parts detective story, folktale, and family saga, the highly anticipated latest novel by Choo (The Night Tiger, 2019) will appeal to fans of diverse, imaginative literary fiction, historical mysteries like Nilima Rao's A Disappearance in Fiji (2023), and fantasy like Marlon James' Dark Star trilogy.

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Starred review from May 24, 2024

A detective is searching for the identity of a dead woman, while a grieving fox is hunting for the man who killed her baby. As each focuses on their own pursuit, they close in relentlessly on each other and on a present that reaches back into a misty past that neither wants to remember but can't avoid. When her aging mistress turns out to be his childhood love, her desire for revenge sets off a chain of deaths that threatens to burn them all to cinders. This bittersweet tale of magical realism and historical fantasy blends a detective story with a mythic fever dream of fox spirits, dying magic, lost love and found hope, and burgeoning revolution, as too much magic interferes in the lives of seemingly ordinary people who have no defenses against the chaos agents running rampant in their midst. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers of fantasy mysteries, fans of Elsa Hart's Jade Dragon Mountain, and anyone who enjoys stories of unreliable narrators where magic is hidden in plain sight. Choo's (The Night Tiger) latest is magical, lyrical, and utterly compelling.--Marlene Harris

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