A Perfect Crime

A 19-year-old Chinese student finds himself bored with life and commits a murder to break up the ennui. A Yi writes in the first person with lean prose and short punchy chapters, and the obvious influences/precedents are Camus, Sartre, and maybe even Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho). Yi's writing is a little flat and his motiveless character isn't all that interesting, however the book has intelligent social commentary on modern Chinese society, especially the judicial system (Yi was a former policeman in Jiangxi).