Description
From Publishers Weekly The discovery of two mutilated corpses and a comatose stranger on the ancient pilgrims' path up Tibet's Sleeping Dragon mountain throws former Beijing special investigator Shan into a quandary at the start of Edgar-winner Pattison's atmospheric fifth mystery set in Tibet (after 2005's Beautiful Ghosts ). The detective and gulag escapee, who has been mysteriously summoned to the remote hamlet of Drango along with his lama friends Lokesh and Gendun, refuses to let the survivor be summarily executed for murder, putting himself and the equally outlaw monks in jeopardy. Shan soon finds himself with just days to delve into a deepening conundrum that hints at both modern corruption and ancient evil. Pattison fans will savor all the Tibetan flavor they have come to expect as well as an intriguing subplot exploring possible kinship between Tibetans and the Navajo. (Tony Hillerman buffs, take note.) Although first-timers may initially stumble over the abundance of foreign names, the journey, like the climb up Sleeping Dragon, soon becomes both frightening and unforgettable. (Dec.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Eliot Pattison is an international lawyer based near Philadelphia. His four previous Shan novels, set in Tibet, are The Skull Mantra (which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel), Water Touching Stone, Bone Mountain, and Beautiful Ghosts.Eliot Pattison is an international lawyer based near Philadelphia. His five previous Shan novels, The Skull Mantra (St Martins 1999), Water Touching Stone (2001), Bone Mountain (2002), Beautiful Ghosts (2004), and Prayer of the Dragon (2007), have been critical and commercial successes. He won the Edgar for Best First Novel and was nominated for the CWA Golden Dagger.
Features & Highlights
- Praise for the Shan series: “Nothing I’ve read or seen about how China has systematically crushed the soul of Tibet has been as effective. . . . A thriller of laudable aspirations and achievements.”—
- Chicago Tribune
- “Shan becomes our Don Quixote. . . . Set against a background that is alternately bleak and blazingly beautiful, this is at once a top-notch thriller and a substantive look at Tibet under siege.”—
- Publishers Weekly
- (starred review) “A rich and multilayered story that mirrors the complexity of the surrounding land.”—
- San Francisco Chronicle
- “Pattison thrills both mystery enthusiasts and reader fascinated by, and concerned about, Tibet.”—
- Booklist
- “Pattison has taken an unknown world and made it come alive.”—
- Library Journal
- Summoned to a remote village from the hidden lamasery where he lives, Shan, formerly an investigator in Beijing, must save a comatose man from execution for two murders in which the victims’ arms have been removed. Upon arrival, he discovers that the suspect is not Tibetan but Navajo. The man has come with his niece to seek ancestral ties between their people and the ancient Bon. The recent murders are only part of a chain of deaths. Together with his friends, the monks Gendun and Lokesh, Shan solves the riddle of Dragon Mountain, the place “where world begins.”
- Eliot Pattison
- is an international lawyer based near Philadelphia. His four previous Shan novels, set in Tibet, are
- The Skull Mantra
- (which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel),
- Water Touching Stone
- ,
- Bone Mountain
- , and
- Beautiful Ghosts
- .
