Guilty Secret catches up with author

Chinese crime writer held for decades-old murders

New Delhi, Aug. 16: Liu Yongbiao, a Chinese murder mystery author whose popular novel, The Guilty Secret, focuses on the life of a female writer who has killed people, has been arrested for the murder of four people some 22 years ago.

The 52-year-old writer, who is a member of the China Writers Association, is suspected of murdering two owners of a guesthouse along with their 13-year-old grandson and a guest during a robbery in 1995. They were all killed by heavy blows to the head with a blunt object.

In The Guilty Secret, the cases remain unsolved.

In his introduction to the book, Liu wrote that he was working on a follow-up he hoped would become a literary sensation: a suspense-filled, cold-case detective drama about a ravishing female author who evades capture despite committing a string of grisly murders.

It was to be titled, The Beautiful Writer who Killed.

According to news website Sixth Tone, the police believe that on the night of November 29, 1995, Liu was one of two men who checked into the guesthouse in Huzhou city to rob its guests. When one victim fought back, he

‘I’ve been waiting for you here all this time,’ Liu Yongbiao reportedly told the police when they appeared at his home to arrest him for the murder of four people

was beaten to death. The rest of the murders were meant to conceal this crime.

Thanks to advances in DNA technology, investigators caught a break after 22 years that helped them identify Liu and a 64-year-old man, named only as Wang, as prime suspects.

“I’ve been waiting for you here all this time,” the writer reportedly told the police when they appeared on his doorstep in east China in the early hours of last Friday.

According to one of the arresting officers, Liu told his wife he had spent more than two decades waiting for the police to come calling. “Now I can finally be free from the mental torment I’ve endured for so long,” he reportedly wrote in a letter to her.

One of Liu’s books, a work of historical fiction, has been turned into a 50-episode television series.