Bone Mountain: A Novel (Inspector Shan Tao Yun) - Hardcover

Pattison, Eliot

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312277601 ISBN 13: 9780312277604

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2002

Synopsis

Deep in the heart of Tibet, Shan Tao Yun, an exiled Chinese national and a former Beijing government Inspector, is caught between the brutal Chinese army and a Western oil company. Shan has agreed to lead an expedition to return the eye of an idol, stolen almost a century ago and recently, clandestinely recovered, to a distant valley, an act that will fulfill an important Tibetan prophecy. But the pilgrimage turns into a desperate flight when the monk who is to lead them is murdered. Shan also discovers that the stone was stolen back from a brigade of the Chinese army that is now in hot pursuit.

Still possessing an investigator's love of truth, Shan faces a perplexing tangle of mysteries. Why are the Chinese so desperate to retrieve the stone eye, why has an American geologist abandoned the oil company's drilling project and fled into the mountains, and why are rumors sweeping the countryside that an ancient lama is returning to liberate this country? As he digs into these questions, Shan realizes that there is more at stake than mere justice: the spiritual survival of his people is in danger as well.

Complex and compelling, Bone Mountain is a spectacular achievement from a major voice in crime fiction.

About this title

Review:

Shan, an ex-police inspector who spent years in a Chinese prison, is the intriguing protagonist of this literary thriller set in the stunning and rarely portrayed landscape of modern Tibet. While Shan's search for a stolen sacred relic in a Himalayan valley whose underground wealth is the center of explorations by a Sino-American oil consortium provides the novel's central plot, the real crime, Beijing's efforts to eradicate the remnants of Tibet's spiritual and cultural heritage, is more fully and engagingly portrayed. The central motif of the novel--Shan's travels with a salt caravan, at first guarding and then searching for the relic after it mysteriously disappears-- becomes a journey toward enlightenment whose denouement is more than worth the trip for readers who opt to suspend disbelief and travel with Shan and his companions to the centuries-old cave of the medicine lamas. Bone Mountain is a rich, complicated, and original exploration into the extraordinary power of belief, faith, and the triumph of the human spirit, as complex and compelling as Tibet itself. --Jane Adams

About the Author:

Eliot Pattison is the author of The Skull Mantra, which was a finalist for the Gold Dagger and winner of the Edgar Award, and Water Touching Stone. He is a world traveler and frequent visitor to China, whose numerous books and articles on international policy issues have been published around the world.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0312277601
• ISBN 13: 9780312277604
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352