Updated: The Golden Hairpin (簪中录)

There is an upcoming drama adaptation for this book.

UPDATE: I have read the translated book and did a mini review 

Update 2: I have read the raw

Book Douban Score: 8.0

The book was translated and is being sold by Amazon. I have not read it, but I am really excited that more books are getting officially translated. Free for Kindle Unlimited users or $3.99 for regular kindle or prime users. The release date is February 20th, 2018. I got so excited about this that I started to look into the upcoming adaptation.

Synopsis from Amazon:

In ancient China, history, vengeance, and murder collide for a female sleuth.

At thirteen, investigative prodigy Huang Zixia had already proved herself by aiding her father in solving confounding crimes. At seventeen, she’s on the run, accused of murdering her family to escape an arranged marriage. Driven by a single-minded pursuit, she must use her skills to unmask the real killer…and clear her name.

But when Huang Zixia seeks the help of Li Shubai, the Prince of Kui, her life and freedom are bargained: agree to go undercover as his eunuch to stop a serial killer and to undo a curse that threatens to destroy the Prince’s life.

Huang Zixia’s skills are soon tested when Li Shubai’s betrothed vanishes. With a distinctively exquisite golden hairpin as her only clue, Huang Zixia investigates—and discovers that she isn’t the only one in the guarded kingdom with a dangerous secret.

I have seen some amazing translations for free in online communites and I hope that somehow those volunteers would be able to do something like this. I would imagine it would be a win for both author and translator.

There is very little information about the drama so far.

On baike, it says that its English title is “A Story of Hairpin” and I do hope they consider changing it to the one of the translated novel since it rolls of the tongue much easier and this one just feels grammatically incorrect.

Production company: FongHong Pictures (凤凰联动影业)

Screenwriter: Jin Haishu

Episode count: 40 (seems unlikely to be so little, but I would welcome it)

Since the character is going to dress as a boy, I would hope we get an actress that doesn’t look too feminine in male clothes. One of the rumors had Sandra Ma playing the lead role, which would be a bit more believable for me.

Have you read the book? Is it good?

Who do you want to see playing the lead roles?

P.S. Do not post spoilers, I plan on reading this 😛

Update: I read the translated book

It was a quick read around 300 pages . Pretty fast paced. I was able to connect a lot of clues pretty quickly and had to wait for the main characters to catch up. Probably due to me reading a lot mystery novels and the book laying out a lot of clues. Some reasonings and details escaped me, but I had a big wrap on how everything developed. However, I was still surprised by how it ended. I think the translator did a great job in making everything easier to understand. The story flowed very well, which is very hard to do when you are translating. If I were to rate just the story by itself, it is probably a 4/5 for me. I liked all characters and how they were developed. There was mystery and a sense of foreboding throughout. I didn’t know what could happen next and the fact that I read it in a day says that I enjoyed it.

Now, this book feels like part of a series of books. It doesn’t conclude the whole story, it just solves one of the many mysteries. This is where I was very frustrated since I felt that the whole book was going to provide a conclusion, while it was only an introduction. It felt like The Mysterious Affair at Styles. I like knowing ahead of time if I am going to be reading a book that is part of a series and not a stand alone. This was my mistake since I didn’t carefully got more information about the original. Afterwards, I saw that it is a series of books and this is just volume one. This hurts my soul because I don’t know if they will translate the other books. The originals were released four books within a four month period, but now I don’t see anything about expecting the other books. I guess they want to see how good this one sells. So I will probably have to go ahead and read the raw. T         T

Overall rating: 4/5

As for who should play each character. The male lead could be played by a number of actors, as of now he is just the typical smart hard to show emotions male lead. Now, the female lead is the big problem. Unlike my initial assessment, I think she could be played by a more girly looking actress. The reason is that through the novel people mention how she looks very feminine. She is described as frail looking in her male clothes, thin, and very pretty. However, she can’t be too girly looking because even if people do think she looks too feminine for a man she is still able to pass as one.

Some actors that came to mind: Shawn Dou, Zhu Yi Long, Yang Yang

Actresses: none as of now lol

Update 2: I went ahead and read the raw

After reading all four books, I can say that this story doesn’t really present anything new. The only different aspect from the usual is that you have a female detective. As for the mysteries, I figured out two of them pretty quickly. The other two were harder to see, but they also happen to be in the two books that I like the least. Besides, the main two characters the rest are not really interesting characters and lack complexity. I also felt like this story could have been shorter. The length was only use to develop the relationship of our leads, but once again it felt unnecessary. The author uses a style straight up from an Agatha Christie novel to solve crimes. It is very much a hallmark of Agatha Christie’s novels and I wonder if she served as inspiration. Where the detective gathers all the suspects in one room, explains the course of her deductive reasoning, and reveals the guilty party. This can get repetitive if you are reading four books back to back. 

Is this novel for you? It depends on what you like and what you are looking forward to read. I believe the author was trying to make the reader solve the mystery on their own or get close ahead of the big reveal. In this sense, it is fun because you can get to play detective from your couch. The mysteries are not hard to solve so if you are experienced in reading mystery novels, this would be a bit too easy for you. If you are looking for a very romantic novel, this is not it. Romance plays a part and I believe our leads care deeply and expressed it throughout the story mainly in the last two books. However, it was secondary to the mysteries that needed to be solved.

Overall rating: 3/5

Re-read value: 1/5 (I do rarely re-read books)

HE? Yes.

As for the adaptation, I think this will be a hard story to adapt for various reasons.