13 Mink Street明克街13号

I am giving the review here before reading on wuxiaworld because I had read it on "webnovel" which was dropped after some 70-80 chapters. But I got hooked up in this. First whatever I remembered, it is very slow burn, so I get frustrated time to time about the slow pace, but for you all slow pace and world building lover, it is the masterpiece, and it has lovely interaction between the characters, logic and emotions are quite good.

Now, I loved it and had researched about this novel. It is one of the highest rated novel in Chinese webnovel community, and people often put it on the level of LOTM, but it has 5000+ chapters, so decide if you want to go for it or not, and for me, I have adhd, so I am gonna go for like 200-300 chapters and then my passion will slowly fizzle out. So enjoy this novel my fellow readers

It must first be stated that this review has only been done with just the first 20 chapters seen, who knows maybe the quality goes down with time or something makes me give up a book with how bad of a plot development it would be.

But at least for now even with just the initial 20 chapters I've been amazed! Its a very slow build up with world setting with the main character just as much in the dark about the world as we are and its not like the mysteries are getting revealed anytime soon, but maybe that changes with the next arc or something. What really got me to leave a thumbs up is the fact that the novel managed to pull off a great twist within the first 20 chapters that I didn't see coming. Overall its like a breath of fresh air compared to plenty of other novels I've read and I feel like I'm gonna enjoy myself for a while reading this.

Of course this review is subject to change as more chapters come out, can only know so much based off the preview after all.

This is peak fiction (ignoring some odd author quirks mentioned at the end lol).

Mystery,supernatural, thriller.

If you enjoy novels with real depth, well-developed characters, and a non-generic plot, this is absolutely for you. I would recommend reading the first ten chapters in one go, as it can feel confusing otherwise. The story does not hand you answers immediately. Instead, it expects you to piece things together yourself, which makes the experience far more rewarding.

This is one of the rare reincarnation stories that actually makes meaningful use of the protagonist’s past life. His previous experience, particularly his forensic and detective skills, along with his emotional intelligence, plays a significant role in shaping the narrative, as he has to rely on his wit and strange circumstance to prove his worth and survive, as he has no op powers or abilities (not yet at least).

Having read all the available chapters, I can confidently say this is a slow, tension-filled story. It demands your attention and engagement rather than feeding you instant gratification. There are no flashy fights or over-the-top power systems, just a gripping, well-crafted story that keeps you hooked from chapter to chapter.

I will not go into specific plot details, as this is the kind of novel best experienced firsthand. Judging by other reviews, it is clear I am not the only one who feels this way, but I couldn't not talk about how good this is, I wish other novels went into such depth.

If you wanted a comparison to other novels, it's reminiscent of 'overlord of puluo', 'star gate' with the initial mystery and clueless mc, however this novel takes more time developing the characters and focuses less on the mc, similar to 'Lord of the Mysteries'.

The novel does have some flaws, but they feel more like writer quirks than actual plot issues.

A couple of things come to mind straight away.

First, the author, and by extension the main character, clearly loves Sichuan Chinese food. Every few chapters, there are one to three paragraphs devoted to it. It is not constant, but it happens often enough to stand out. It was interesting the first couple of times, but after that it starts to feel like filler. We get it. The main character and his family like spring rolls. At a certain point, it feels like it is just padding the word count. It also does not help that the story is set in a 1950s America or England setting, which makes these moments feel slightly immersion breaking.

The other issue is the way political views are handled. While the author does this somewhat convincingly, and it fits the setting and the likely beliefs of people at the time, many characters tend to express the same viewpoint. For example, protesters are consistently portrayed negatively, but the narrative does not really engage with the topic in any critical way. That said, it is still handled in a believable manner, and it seems like the author avoids going deeper into these discussions to keep the focus on the main plot.