Books like The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox

I loved these books so much that I published this one.All three novels concern the same two primary characters, but can be read completely independently. Bridge of Birds, the first of the three, is such a just generally appealing and interesting novel that I sold it "satisfaction guaranteed" at my bookshop. You don't care for it? Bring it back for a full refund. In 16 years and over 1,500 copies of the paperback sold, I had two people take me up on it. (And one of them said he did kinda like it, but really wanted the cash.)The frustration at that time was that folks would come rushing back, delighted with this new find of theirs and ask what else this author had written. "The good news is, there are two more books. The bad news is, you can't have them." Both of the later books had gone out of print shortly after publication, and were astonishingly expensive in the used book market.That's why, in 1998, while looking for a really big thing to do to celebrate 10 years in the bookstore business, I decided to contact Mr. Hughart, hire a book designer (the amazing Robert Garcia), and take my friend Kaja Foglio up on her years-ago idea to illustrate these books if there was ever a chance. We published an omnibus edition of all three novels, with a color cover, and six full page black and white illustrations. While the collection we published is also now out of print, Bridge of Birds has always been available, and the other two have been showing up in sporadic reprints. Set in "a China that never was", these books have elements of both fantasy and mystery novels, but fit best into the "just try it and see if you like it" genre.