A review of ‘The Shanghai Circle’ by a member of the Online Book Club on the 12th of November 2023

4 out of 5 stars

I chose “The Shanghai Circle” because of where it is set. I will be going to China for the first time in a few months, and I love to read books about places I am going to (or have been in the past). “The Shanghai Circle” provided exactly what I look for in a book set in a foreign land. Henderson really immersed me in the environment, often describing it through the eyes of characters who have just arrived in the city, so it felt like I was experiencing these new sights, smells and sounds alongside the protagonists. Merchants, fortune-tellers, a blind man with pet monkeys, soldiers, hawkers, rickshaws, monks and beggars all help create the stage on which this story is set.

The first four chapters are about four different characters: Joseph, Davina, Thomas and Irina. These characters, alongside their family and friends, are a mixture of Chinese and ex-pat; wealthy and poor; venerated businessmen, leaders of organised crime groups and trafficked escorts; newcomers to Shanghai and those who are well established. So I gained an insight into many different walks of life that would have existed in Shanghai at the time (1936 – 1937). The following chapters jump in and out of these characters’ lives, and we start to see how their stories are interconnected.

At times, I found myself forgetting that this story was set so far in the past. Many of Henderson’s characters have very modern thinking, and enough money to make long-distance phone calls and own fridges and air conditioners. For this reason, my rating is 4/5 stars, instead of 5/5. This doesn’t stifle the enjoyment of the book, however, and the mentioning of WW1 abruptly brought me back to the correct decade.

Henderson can certainly write a page turner. Between the impending war, the violence and vengeance of triad life and a devastating natural disaster, “The Shanghai Circle” had plenty to keep me hooked; this is all presented in bite-sized, perfectly edited chapters that had me tearing through the book.