Shockingly, none of the action of this story takes place on a train.

The Railway Conspiracy by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan once again follows the crime-fighting duo, Judge Dee Ren Jie and Lao She, this time as they face off with a multinational conspiracy in 1920s London. After the attempted theft of a valuable antique weapon, the two men grapple with conniving diplomats, murder, and a sinister plot between Russia and Japan to control the railway—and even the government—of China. Dee and Lao seek to unravel the tangled threads, while also keeping themselves alive, a task that becomes more and more difficult when a Japanese mercenary and a mysterious Russian set their sights on them.

As we know, I love a Holmes/Watson duo, and this is no exception. It was such fun to see Dee and Lao again, in this sequel to The Murder of Mr. Ma. Dee is an entertaining take on the Holmes character; he’s intelligent and snarky and unafraid to throw himself into danger to solve a crime. I found it a little odd that in this installment, his addiction to opium was seemingly entirely gone without any effort, sort of brushed aside by both the characters and the narrative. I’m pretty sure that isn’t how recovery works. Then again, the original Conan Doyle stories treat Holmes’ recreational use of drugs very casually too, so this perhaps isn’t entirely unprecedented in these stories. Still, it would have been nice to delve into that side of Dee’s character arc (though I suppose not everything can be on Elementary’s level).

As for other characters, I liked Lao a bit more in this book. In the first, he was extremely ineffectual and served primarily to narrate, without contributing much himself. In this one, he’s still a bit bumbling (at least in combat scenarios), but now has a bit more to do to impact the story. I liked seeing him use his intellectual side to come up with a scheme, and his rapport with Dee is also great. They have a bit of a disagreement over the course of the story about their worldviews, but when push comes to shove, are a good team who have each other’s backs.

Then there’s the minor characters like Hoong and Jimmy Fingers, who are very fun and round out the little posse of crime fighters. Jimmy, a scrappy young pickpocket, is especially delightful. Plus, the new character Fung is amazing. She’s so cool, a subversive and entertaining addition, and rightly earning Dee’s and Lao’s respect. I also enjoyed her backstory, being Chinese by birth but feeling cut off from that culture by virtue of being raised elsewhere. I like the nuance and variety of Asian representation in these books. And also, I want to be friends with Fung.

Regarding the mystery, I found it less interesting than the one in the first book, likely because a lot of it has to do with political machinations. That’s just not my favorite type of storyline, though this does at least seem well-researched. From the complex international relations between China, Russia, and Japan in the 1920s, to the awful situation of many Asians in Britain, this has a strong undertone of biting commentary—one that’s unfortunately still relevant. And while I said this was less enjoyable for me than book one, there are still lots of scenes that were exciting and hard to put down. There’s an especially memorable one featuring unexpected poison and an explosion, plus the final confrontation between Dee and Isaki, the ronin who’s been plaguing him from the beginning. There’s a couple of great twists in the latter, as well as some great martial arts.

In the end, The Railway Conspiracy is a good installment in this series. Its standalone mystery is rich with detail, high stakes, and solid fight scenes. The two main characters, as well as a couple of standout side characters, are great. And while I didn’t like this one as much as its predecessor, I still enjoyed the read, and the audiobook narrated by Daniel York Loh is a great production.

The Railway Conspiracy is available now!