Well-written and politically tendentious

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	• The Skull Mantra (Inspector Shan Tao Yun) Eliot Pattison St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2001 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 48 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Tibetan Murder Mystery

Shan Tao Yun fell victim to politics and now works in a prison camp in the Himalayas. He's part of a work group that mostly consists of Buddhist Monks who have greatly influenced him, to the degree that he has converted to Buddhism. He has come to terms with the fact that his life will be spent breaking rocks until he dies or something drastic happens.

And then something drastic happens, he's on the spot and chosen to investigate a murder, the authorities believe that another Tibetan monk has done it and they want the appearance of investigation to make questions from further up go away. But with Shan they've chosen the wrong man for the job, he's dogged and won't hide the truth, that's why he's in Tibet in the first place (and one of the quibbles I had with the story, why chose someone that's known not to hide things?)

It's interesting but it occasionally gets bogged down in detail, things that just don't move the story ahead, and while interesting, just seem to make the story falter. I found the culture clash and the issues with heritage and tourism to be interesting ones, I know some people had issues with the depiction of Buddhism and the reality of Buddhism but it did add to the sense of alienness. There were some moments where I felt that things were depicted as being a little too black and white, and the political agenda of the author occasionally crept in.

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Mesmerizing

I enjoy reading mystery and police procedurals from other cultures. The Bangkok books by John Burdett, the Wallander series by Mankell, Qui Xialong's books set in China, Natsuo Kirino's Out, Alexander McCall Smith's Mma Ramotswe stories. I picked this book up with that in mind.

To me, the mechanics of the mystery story in The Skull Mantra are not as clear, polished, and compelling as others I have read. And, if that is all you read it for, I think you will be disappointed.

However.... (and this is a BIG however)... On other levels, this book is remarkable! Completely mesmerizing.

There are images and turns of phrase that make me stop, put down the book, and just breathe. Just gather myself together and appreciate and how distant we can be from other cultures and other, ancient ways of thinking and being. But how they can resonate..... And I am not speaking about the larger struggle between modern and ancient, China and Tibet, greed and generosity... But smaller things in the book. A description of a landscape, a whispered phrase, the sound of chanting, a hand position.

This book has inticed me to look at maps, and find travelblogs and pictures. To read more about the places and the people and the ideas. To stare at the stars. To try to be mindful. To try to slow down.

Maybe this book came to me at just the right time -- but I very, very much enjoyed it on a lot of levels. And am really excited at discovering a new author.

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great read

The first in Pattison's inspector Shan series is an entertaining read full of fascinating characters and steeped in Tibetan Buddhism, mysticism, and chinese-tibetan politics that all meet up in a murder mystery on the Tibetan plateau.

Well-written and politically tendentious

I am torn by this book. On one hand, it is well-written, plotted, and researched. As a mystery separated from the real world it works well. HOWEVER, we do live in the real world, and the author is obviously trying to make points about Tibet and China, and unfortunately overplays his hand. ALL the Chinese (except for the hero who is in essence an honorary Tibetan) are bad, and ALL the Tibetans are good. How real is this?

In addition, the author makes it seeem as if the history of China in Tibet is colonial and exploitative in all bad senses of the words. Again, this is a political stance and not any attempt at portraying the real world, where complexities and exceptions abound. He could have, and should have, been more realistic.

As a criticism of the novel as a mystery, I never accepted the premise that a political prisoner would be asked to do an criminal investigation of a sensitive murder. The world just doesn't work like this.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The corpse is missing its head and is dressed in American clothes. Found by a Tibetan prison work gang on a windy cliff, the grisly remains clearly belong to someone too important for Chinese authorities to bury and forget. So the case is handed to veteran police inspector Shan Tao Yun. Methodical, clever Shan is the best man for the job, but he too is a prisoner, deported to Tibet for offending Beijing. Granted a temporary release, Shan is soon pulled into the Tibetan people's desperate fight for its sacred mountain and the Chinese regime's blood-soaked policies. Then, a Buddhist priest is arrested, a man Shan knows is innocent. Now time is running out for Shan to find the real killer...in an astonishing, emotionally charged story that will change the way you think about Tibet-- and freedom-- forever.

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