"On the mountainous border of China and Tibet in 1708, a detective must learn what a killer already knows: that empires rise and fall on the strength of the stories they tell. Li Du is an imperial librarian in exile. Arriving in Dayan, the last Chinese town before the Tibetan border, he is surprised to find it teeming with travelers, soldiers, and merchants, all come for the spectacle of an eclipse of the sun commanded by the Emperor himself. And when a Jesuit astronomer is found murdered, Li Du suspects this was no random killing." -- cover.