The Pale Ancient and the House of Mirrors is a novel by Travis Lee, released in May 2017.
Richard, an American journalist, vanishes while investigating a cult in a small Hubei town. His disappearance affects four people: Ying Li, a local cop; Mary Hudson, a newbie expat China writer who dreams of cementing her name alongside the greats; Chris Johnson, a freelance translator whose encounter with the cult years ago has left him scarred; and Daniel Roberts, a spiteful expat media mogul with drug problems and a failing marriage.
Their investigation leads them to the cult's origins in the madness of the Cultural Revolution and a conspiracy extending into the upper reaches of the Chinese Communist Party.
The book is told in First-Person Perspective, divided into several parts:
Part 1 - The Mute Foreigner & the Policeman: Set in August 2014, a constable brings a mute foreigner to his sergeant, Ying Li. The foreigner writes out three odd Chinese characters...
Part 2 - Mary: In March 2014, Mary Hudson accepts her friend Frank's invitation to visit a small Chinese town. Along the way they meet Richard, who is investigating strange messages posted all over town...
Part 3 - Not Translated: A translation of a journal Richard acquired from a victim's family member.
Part 4 - Chris: In October 2007, Chris Johnson and Daniel Roberts are exchange students at Wuhan University. When Daniel goes missing after a long night of partying, Chris finds him near-death in a hotel room...with crescent-shaped mirrors above the bed.
Part 5 - Daniel: Back in August 2014, Daniel reads Mary's account of what happened. His investigation leads him to the widow of a Cultural Revolution victim...and a powerful transportation official with deep ties to the cult.
Part 6 - The House of Mirrors: Daniel goes to the small town and meets Ying Li. They decide to confront The Pale Ancient directly...
The Pale Ancient and the House of Mirrors provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Frank. The low point is when he pukes on his son's feet.
- Bee Afraid: Outside the abandoned house you hear a strange buzz that sounds like bees.
- After reading the cult's messages, several people hear bees. Daniel sees them too.
- City with No Name: The small Hubei town where the Pale Ancient lurks is never named. Justified in-universe: Mary doesn't want people going there and endangering themselves.
- Companion Cube: Steve the fortune cat, who Daniel talks to because he has no other friends.
- Daniel bandages Steve after breaking him in a fit of rage.
- The Conscience: Steve the fortune cat plays this too. He calls Daniel out for giving Tan Chu Li's widow false hope while using her to gain information about the cult.
- Foregone Conclusion: It doesn't take long to identify the mute foreigner in part 1, leaving readers to wonder how long Richard will be with Mary and Frank.
- Hallucinations: Daniel has visual and auditory hallucinations:
- He sees crescent-shaped mirrors multiplying on a parking garage wall.
- In the abandoned KTV, the two dead prostitutes guide him to the mural of the Pale Ancient.
- He sees bees after interviewing Tan Chu Li's widow.
- Other characters also hear bees after seeing the three Chinese characters.
- Daniel hears Tian Tang during the meeting with Huang Tan.
- Ironic Echo: When Tan Chu Li's widow is telling Daniel about her husband's murder, she refers to him as a "so stubborn man". Later, Xiao Liu calls Daniel "so stubborn man" when he insists on confronting Huang Tan.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Daniel is angry, spiteful, hates all other China blogs but his own, deals drugs and is implied to have cheated on his wife several times, leading their current Sexless Marriage. Yet, he risks his life to save Richard and destroy the Pale Ancient.
- He refuses to stop the investigation, even when Xiao Liu warns that Huang Tan will kill him.
- He also feels genuine remorse over deceiving Tan Chu Li's widow.
- Language Barrier: Frank has lived in China for seven years, but his Mandarin is terrible.
- Averted with the rest of the cast, who have no problems communicating in Mandarin. Even Mary, who has been in China the least amount of time, knows more Chinese than Frank.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The source of Daniel's hallucinations is very likely The Pale Ancient, though they could be a product of his drug use.
- The bees the other characters hear, definitely the Pale Ancient.
- Mysterious Stranger: Richard, when Mary and Frank first meet him. He is likewise vague about his reasons for going to the small Hubei town, until Mary sees him reading one of the cult's messages.
- Naked on Arrival: Richard, when the constable finds him in the flash-forward that opens the book.
- Nostalgic Narrator: Chris's part strikes a much Lighter and Softer tone than the rest of the book, at least until they find Daniel near death.
- Nothing Is Scarier: The three special Chinese characters that appear in the cult's messages. We never learn what they are, only that once you see them you can't unsee them.
- In Not Translated, Chris renders them as [not translated]
- Odd Friendship: Daniel and Richard.
- Sexless Marriage: Daniel and Xia Xue. He daydreams about better days in their marriage and it's heavily implied from Xia Xue's behavior that they haven't had sex in years.
- Unusual Euphemism: Daniel refers to his cocaine use as "feeding the reindeer".
- What Did I Do Last Night?: The main characters in Chris's part try to find out what happened to Daniel after a wild night of partying.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Chris narrates everyone's fates at the end of his part:
- Matthieu moves to Beijing to study at Beijing Language and Culture University. He later takes up modeling.
- Sam gets a government scholarship and stays in Wuhan, still partying even in 2014.
- Chris stays in China, gets married and opens a translation service.
- Daniel also stays in China, gets married and founds the blog Dragon Eye Nation. Chris is unaware of Daniel's criminal activities.
- Chris saves Richard for last. Richard started acting weird after a trip to his friend's wedding in a small Chinese town. Last Chris heard, Richard had gone back to the States to do a Master's in Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania.
- The beginning of Daniel's part could serve as an epilogue, if you believe the evidence that he's writing all this after the events of the book.
