I really like the historical Chinese setting of this book, but I don't have the knowledge necessary to judge its accuracy. I appreciate the fact that the heroine is not one of the courtesans as usual, but rather the servant and friend of one. The hero, him, seems to be a bit cliche as he is a student who failed the scholar exams several times. A murder is committed and the investigation involves the heroine's mistress. The hero is the principal suspect, so he decides to solve the case himself. He is courting the heroine's mistress but is intrigued by the heroine as she doesn't fail for his act of friendly idiot like everyone else and doesn't seem to like him. Thus he decides to use the murder as a pretext to approach her and he asks her to help him to solve the case, as she knows very well the courtesans district and its inhabitants. 
 The mystery wasn't easily predictable apart from some elements (not that I tried very hard...)and was satisfying, even if I wasn't entirely interested in it. I also like the interactions between the hero and heroine even if I was a bit annoyed with the hero: he doesn't reveal some info about him to the heroine and is far to optimist about their future (which justify partly why he didn't find necessary to explain some things). Thankfully, she calls him on this. 
 It was a good read with some elements that I really like, but it wasn't exceptional for me. However, it made me want to read other books with a similar setting.