E. T. C. Werner

Werner remained in the British consular service in China until 1914 serving in postings including time working in the Chancery at the Peking Legation, then a year in Canton (Guangzhou), two in Tientsin (Tianjin) and another couple in Macao.In 2011, the British author Paul French, an expatriate living in China, published a study of the murder, Midnight in Peking, which explores the career and character of Werner and offers a solution to the mystery.[2] A TV adaptation of the book is currently being produced by Kudos with a script by Richard Warlow (creator, writer and show runner of the BBC Television and Amazon Prime series Ripper Street.[3] Jonathan Spence, in a review of the book, speculates that part of the reason that the crime was not solved was that Werner made "a self-insulating cult of his loneliness.He infuriated the British, failed to get in close touch with the Chinese officers assigned to the case, gave his own contradictory press conferences on the steps of the regional substation, and rooted around the probable crime scenes without permission.