Shehuipai is the Chinese name for the Japanese shakai-ha school of mystery writing, associated with Matsumoto Seichō from the late 1950s: the crime matters less for the puzzle than for what it reveals about the society that produced it, its class, money and institutions. It is set against benge (本格, the classic puzzle mystery of locked rooms and clues). Chinese suspense dramas borrow the label for stories that use a murder to look at a town, a factory or an era. Dead of Winter is a police drama in the shehuipai style.
