The emergence of crime fiction was closely connected to the development of a modern legal system. In Germany there were the true crime stories August Gottlieb Meißner (1753-1804), in Britain The Newgate Calendar (1774) and in France the romanticized publications of Eugène-François Vidocq (1775-1857), the first chief of the Sûreté.

China has one of the oldest bureaucracies on earth. A real life judge from the early Middle Ages became their Sherlock Holmes, and was transformed into one of the most beloved Chinese literary characters. In this audiobook Michael Henrik Wynn, the editor of the educational net radio stream Historyradio.org, retells a classic gong’an legend about the iconic Judge Bao. The original story was published by Feng Menglong (1574–1646), but this is not a direct translation.