01-12-2015, 07:30 AM
You should just read it because it has skull in the title. Okay, maybe you need more.
Shan Tao Yun was a Beijing police inspector investigating corruption until he investigated the wrong party official. That was five years ago. Now he works with a group of Tibetan Monks on a work gang building roads through the Himalayas. He has put his former life behind him until a headless corpse is found on the road path. The monks go on strike and refuse to move further until the demon Tamdin is appeased. Strikes aren't allowed at the prison, so Commandos are brought in to sort the situation out. At first with truncheons, but eventually guns if a solution isn't found.
Shan is taken from the road gang and given the task of finding out who committed the murder. He is torn by his loyalties to the monks and wanting to find the truth. His investigations take him all over Tibet, searching destroyed monasteries and prowling the museums of Lhasa.
The whole story is set against the backdrop of China's annexation of Tibet and the pacification methods of the country. Lots of discussion of the destruction of the monasteries. Lots of talk about being a monk and Buddhism.
But that just added atmosphere to a really nice police procedural. Shan is the one honest man searching for truth in a swirl of political correctness. He is also torn between his need to find the truth and the fact it's taking him away from his own religious studies.
This is the beginning of a lengthy series and I can't wait to read the rest of them.
Shan Tao Yun was a Beijing police inspector investigating corruption until he investigated the wrong party official. That was five years ago. Now he works with a group of Tibetan Monks on a work gang building roads through the Himalayas. He has put his former life behind him until a headless corpse is found on the road path. The monks go on strike and refuse to move further until the demon Tamdin is appeased. Strikes aren't allowed at the prison, so Commandos are brought in to sort the situation out. At first with truncheons, but eventually guns if a solution isn't found.
Shan is taken from the road gang and given the task of finding out who committed the murder. He is torn by his loyalties to the monks and wanting to find the truth. His investigations take him all over Tibet, searching destroyed monasteries and prowling the museums of Lhasa.
The whole story is set against the backdrop of China's annexation of Tibet and the pacification methods of the country. Lots of discussion of the destruction of the monasteries. Lots of talk about being a monk and Buddhism.
But that just added atmosphere to a really nice police procedural. Shan is the one honest man searching for truth in a swirl of political correctness. He is also torn between his need to find the truth and the fact it's taking him away from his own religious studies.
This is the beginning of a lengthy series and I can't wait to read the rest of them.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit