Chief inspector Chen Cao, along with his subordinate, Yu, start to investigate this murder case and find that this young woman lived a double life.

[4] In addition to poetry, Qiu inserts popular Chinese idioms, historical allusions, philosophical aphorism and Maoist speeches.

[4] In an interview, Qiu explains that he had not intended to write Death of a Red Heroine as a “detective story”.

"[2][1] The differences of Qiu's style from traditional Western detective story have won him acclaim for “[a]n impressive and welcome respite from the typical crime novel.”[7] Scholar Liu Bai reviews the book from the perspective of trauma theory, which puts individuals' trauma on a social level to reveal the structure of power in society.

Liu also found that the book reveals Qiu Xiaolong's awareness of fighting for his own freedom of speech.

He argues that those anxieties reflect Qiu Xiaolong's expectation to obtain acknowledgment of his own social identity as a member of ethnic minority in America.

[2] The book was translated into Chinese by Yu Lei (俞雷) under the title Hóng yīng zhī sǐ (红英之死).

While sections of the text critical of the Cultural Revolution, the high cadre's children (高干子弟), and the Party were faithfully translated, some sexual scenes and descriptions were removed.