Series: Lincoln Rhyme Novels
Audio CD
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Abridged edition (March 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743520653
ISBN-13: 978-0743520652
Product Dimensions: 5 x 1 x 6 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (250 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #2,674,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #42 in Books > Books on CD > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Deaver, Jeffery #5450 in Books > Books on CD > General #11186 in Books > Books on CD > Literature & Fiction > General
THE STONE MONKEY is by far the best in Deaver's Lincoln Rhymes series. The main plot line revolves around Lincoln's effort to stop THE Ghost, a notorious Chinese "snakehead" (human smuggler) from killing what's left of two dozen illegal Chinese immigrants. When the coast guard zeroed in on the ship carrying the "undocumenteds," The Ghost had dynamited the ship, killing most everyone on board, except for two families and an undercover cop who manage to make it to shore. This is the best of the series because of the research Deaver did on Chinese culture, specifically smuggling of human cargo. The book is generously sprinkled with such terms as "ju-jia" or piglets, the derogatory term for the people in the hold of the ship; "Meiguo," Chinese for Beautiful County or America, and "bangshou," the lieutenant who helps The Ghost accomplish his task. The book is also replete with solid characterization, the best of which is Sonny Li, a Chinese detective disguised as one of the illegals. He clashes with Lincoln by smoking unfiltered Camels at crime scenes and by taking a much more humanistic approach to crime detection, as opposed to Lincoln's emphasis on the evidence. Li's favorite expression is "Ten Judges of Hell" in reference to the Chinese myth that the judges of hell keep a record of everyone who has ever lived, their faults and good points. I've had problems with Deaver's loosey-goosey approach to plotting in the past; however, in this work, he manages to keep it real for the most part, except for one minor glitch where he has the Ghost switch places with one of the Chinese dissidents. The dissident has police protection, since the Ghost is out to kill all of the survivors, but that doesn't stop Deaver from having him sneak out and get involved in a gun battle or two.
The Vanished Man: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Lincoln Rhyme Novels) The Burning Wire: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Lincoln Rhyme Novels) The Broken Window: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Lincoln Rhyme Novels) The Twelfth Card: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Lincoln Rhyme Novels) The Cold Moon: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Lincoln Rhyme Novels) The Stone Monkey (Lincoln Rhyme Novels) The Coffin Dancer: A Novel (Lincoln Rhyme Novels) The Steel Kiss (Lincoln Rhyme Novels) The Steel Kiss (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) The Kill Room (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) The Burial Hour (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) The Skin Collector (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel) The Vanished Man: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New England's Stone Walls Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America (Simon & Schuster Lincoln Library) Magic Tree House Fact Tracker: Abraham Lincoln: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #47: Abe Lincoln at Last! Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker: The Unlikely Friendship of Elizabeth Keckley and Mary Todd Lincoln Abraham Lincoln in the Kitchen: A Culinary View of Lincoln's Life and Times Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War The Civil War Diary of Gideon Welles, Lincoln's Secretary of the Navy: The Original Manuscript Edition (The Knox College Lincoln Studies Center)