But he wasn't sure how to construct his stories when he began writing fiction a decade later.

"I decided to write a detective story, because there was a ready structure for that genre: A murder happens, and a detective arrives at the scene and solves the mystery," he says.

"I thought it would be easy to include what I wanted to say. I didn't know what I had written belonged to the mystery genre. I gave it to the publisher and let them categorize it."

His first book, Death of a Red Heroine, is about the murder of a young woman and national model worker, who lives a double life and is involved in a relationship with a high-ranking Party cadre's son.

The Guardian newspaper ranked it No 1 on its list of the top 10 Asian crime novels. The Wall Street Journal named it as one of the best five political novels of all time.

Following the success of Red Heroine, Qiu took Inspector Chen on many more adventures in Loyal Character Dancer, When Red Is Black, A Case of Two Cities, The Mao Case and Red Mandarin Dress. Qiu has been contracted to write three more books about the detective.

"I always try to present the social environment behind the murder and explore one particular issue in each book," he says.

The series' seventh book, which is scheduled for release in October, is about the pollution of Jiangsu province's Taihu Lake.

"It's not only the water that gets polluted but also people's minds," he says.

Qiu is working with Howard French, a journalist and associate professor with Columbia University, on a book about "disappearing Shanghai". French took pictures of the changing city's scenes and Qiu wrote short poems to go with the photos.

Qiu says he is using an "interactive inspirational" creative process for the book, which he hopes will become "a nice coffee table book - easy and intimate".

The three novels of Qiu's that have been translated into Chinese haven't received the acclaim they have in the West. Many young Chinese readers accuse him of including too much social background - so much so, that it dilutes the mystery's suspense.

"While I had felt a little guilty for my Chinese readers, now I don't feel the least bit of guilt," Qiu says.

"I had to record a period of history."