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Summary
Summary
Praise for the Tao Yun Shan series:
"Majestic."-- The New York Times Book Review
"A powerful picture of courage in the face of tyranny."-- The Washington Post
"Nothing I've read or seen about how China has systematically crushed the soul of Tibet has been as effective."-- Chicago Tribune
Shan Tao Yun is an exiled Chinese national and a former Beijing investigator on parole from the Tibetan gulag to which he had been consigned as punishment. He is ferrying a corpse on muleback over the slopes of Chomolungma--Everest--at the request of a local wisewoman who says the gods have appointed this task to him, when he encounters what looks like a traffic accident. A government bus filled with imprisoned illegal monks has overturned. Then Shan hears gunfire. Two women in an approaching sedan have been killed. One is the Chinese minister of tourism; the other, a blond Westerner, organizes climbing expeditions. Though she dies in his arms, Shan is later met with denials that this foreigner is dead.
Shan must find the murderer, for his recompense will be the life and sanity of his son, Ko, imprisoned in a Chinese "yeti factory" where men are routinely driven mad.
Eliot Pattison is an international lawyer based near Philadelphia. His five previous Shan novels have been critical and commercial successes. He won the Edgar® Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for the Crime Writers' Association Golden Dagger.
Author Notes
Eliot Pattison is an international lawyer based near Philadelphia. His five previous Shan novels, set in Tibet, have been critical and commercial successes. He won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for the Crime Writers' Association Golden Dagger.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Adult/High School-In Tibet, Shan, an exiled Chinese national, undertakes the difficult task of transporting a corpse over the slopes of Mount Chomolungma (Everest). For religious and spiritual reasons, the successful delivery of the body is crucial to the inhabitants of a local village. Shan knows that he must complete the mission if he is to have any hope of seeing his son released from the deadly confines of a nearby Chinese "yeti factory." Things go terribly wrong. While on the mountain trail with the corpse atop a mule, Shan is suddenly at the scene of a double murder as one of the victims utters her last mystifying words. Also, in short order he encounters an explosion, a landslide, and boulders blocking a bus carrying red-robed monks being held captive by the Chinese authorities. With Shan's aid, several monks disperse. Shots are fired, Shan is arrested for the murders, and the mule and corpse are gone. How the resourceful protagonist negotiates the minefield of villains and thugs, avoids death, and tracks down the truth will keep readers engrossed. But as good as the twists and turns of this thrilling page-turner may be, and as thoroughly as the main characters are portrayed, it's the superbly rendered background story of a nation under siege that sets the book apart. Teens will be struck by how completely and systematically the Chinese government has tried to crush the Tibetan people. And they will be amazed as well by how much strength the Tibetans have found within themselves, and in their deep and complex faith.-Robert Saunderson, formerly at Berkeley Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Edgar-winner Pattison blends an eye-opening look at contemporary China with a traditional whodunit in his stellar sixth Tibet mystery (after 2007's Prayer of the Dragon). Shan Tao Yun, exiled after a career pursuing high-level corruption in the Chinese government, is arrested for the murder of China's minister of tourism, gunned down along with an American woman, Megan Ross, near Mount Everest at about the time an avalanche crushed a military bus transporting political prisoners. Though Shan persuades the arresting officer to release him from custody, he's replaced in the dock by Colonel Tan, Shan's only hope of rescuing his imprisoned son, Shan Ko. If he's to see Shan Ko again, Shan must clear the colonel by finding the real killer. The official consensus that Ross, a veteran climber, is still alive complicates Shan's efforts. Newcomers as well as those already emotionally invested in the resourceful and ethical sleuth will cheer him on. Author tour. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Step by perilous step, Inspector Shan gets tangled in another complex and sensitive investigation. Exiled Beijing Investigator Shan Tao Yun treks slowly along forbidding Mount Everest, fulfilling his promise to female diviner Ama Apte to transport a corpse. Comically officious Constable Jin, a native Tibetan now fervently Chinese, attempts to arrest Shan, who's spent time in a Tibetan slave-labor camp for murder, until Shan shows him how long the corpse has been a corpse. The complex tensions since the Chinese have taken over Tibet continue to play out when, after his encounter with Jin, Shan spies the aftermath of a bus accident on a road below: A score of Tibetan monks on their way to detention camps are suddenly free. Nearby, Shan finds a blond woman dying of a gunshot wound who whispers her last words to him in English: "The raven." Her apparent companion was a Chinese woman, already dead. Native curiosity prompts the veteran detective to unravel this mystery, and more urgent reasons raise the stakes: his reputation, recompense for the aborted mission and, most important, leverage with the Chinese officials who have recently imprisoned Shan's son, Shan Ko. Beginning with local Party member and VIP Tsipon and wise Ama Apte, he makes his appeal. A whodunit wrapped in a socio-political thriller, all the more valuable for its timeliness. Shan's sixth case (Prayer of the Dragon, 2007, etc.) is aimed at readers who savor subtlety and complexity. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Readers seeking a change from urban whodunits have embraced Edgar Award-winner Pattison's superlative series set in ethereal, enigmatic, long-enduring Tibet. Shan Tao Yun, disgraced Beijing investigator and survivor of a Tibetan gulag, now spends his days quietly dwelling among residents of the Roof of the World. Over the years, his intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the Chinese political system has proved invaluable in solving a host of compelling conundrums. In this sixth installment (after Prayer of the Dragon, 2007), Shan is transporting a corpse over the slopes of Mt. Everest when he hears gunfire. Two women a Chinese minister and an outspoken American hiker have been shot and left for dead at the side of the road. The Chinese authorities are quick to blame the inhabitants of a local village, who have long harbored animosity toward a government that sees Tibet's majestic mountains as little more than a tourist commodity. Shan questions revered soothsayers and surly colonels in search of answers, ever aware that the survival of his son Ko currently imprisoned in a Chinese asylum depends on his success. Pattison serves as literary ambassador to beautiful, brutal Tibet in a tale that engages, enlightens, and entertains.--Block, Allison Copyright 2009 Booklist