[Pulpmeister]

John Phillips Marquand (November 10, 1893 – July 16, 1960) was a prolific writer, specially of short stories, and a Pulitzer Prize winner. His novels can be divided into two streams: serious, and popular action (for example, the Mr Moto series).

This 1935 novel is set in the same territory as the first Mr Moto, China in the 1930s, and tells of the complications which ensue when an American goes in search of some Ming Dynasty ceramics. It is rather like a Mr Moto without Mr Moto.