Red Blossom in Snow

When an unidentified man turns up murdered at the House of Heavenly Peaches, lead courtesan Song Yi is thrown back together with magistrate Li Chen, a famously rule-abiding man she's had a cautious, unresolved flirtation with since he became a regular at the house, staying to talk with her for hours he couldn't really afford. The two have kept a respectable distance in Changan society, but a trip back to their shared home prefecture gives them room to finally act on the pull between them.

Solving the murder means solving the disappearance of Song Yi's courtesan sister too, and neither investigation stays clean of old family secrets neither Song Yi nor Li Chen were ready to face.

The fifth Lotus Palace Mystery, Jeannie Lin's Red Blossom in Snow moves the series' courtly Tang-dynasty intrigue out of Changan and into the leads' shared past.