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A novel of love, betrayal, greed, corruption, triads, and revolution set in southern China at the time of the Boxer rebellion.

Yingching, 1900. The former Viceroy of Chekiang province has moved to his palace in the south. When his young, beautiful wife embarks on a forbidden love affair with a priest from the Jesuit mission, both the Church and the Viceroy begin planning revenge. But they have reckoned without the Tien Tu Hin, a secret brotherhood of arcane rituals and revolutionary plots who are more than ready to rise against the powerful and the corrupt.

The Vermilion Pencil, first published in America in 1908, was recognised at the time for its authentic descriptions of the Chinese scene. Its author, Homer Lea, aspired to military greatness but fell in with Chinese reformers when serious health problems kept him out of the US army. His intimate knowledge of secret societies is an integral part of this strange tale of China in rebellion.

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