Eight Skilled Gentlemen
core novel 1990 The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox
Record
| First published | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.04 (2,179 ratings, collected 2026-08-26) |
| Page count | 255 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780385417099 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
The third novel in the series opens as Master Li Kao and Number Ten Ox witness a so-called vampire ghoul appear during a public execution, a disturbing enough event that the Celestial Master personally asks the pair to look into it. As they investigate, the case widens well beyond the original sighting, pulling in a conspiracy connected to a fraudulent tea scheme and drawing suspicion toward the Celestial Master's own household. Following their established pattern of blending detective-style inquiry with the supernatural, Master Li and Ox find themselves tracking counterfeit goods, magical artifacts and ancient entities through a fantastical version of imperial China as the true scope of the plot behind the ghoul's appearance gradually comes into focus.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox
- Series: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox core; position 3 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Barry Hughart
Notes
- From the series record (The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox): A comic, mythic detective fantasy set in a China that never quite existed, following the elderly sage Master Li and his young assistant Number Ten Ox. The author stopped at three novels by choice, saying a fourth would only repeat what the first three had already done, and died in 2019 without writing more.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox: position 3 of 3: previous The Story of the Stone (1988)
Sources
← The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.