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The Skull Mantra
 
 

The Skull Mantra (Paperback)

by Eliot Pattison (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd; New edition edition (2 Nov 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099409798
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099409793
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 184,436 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Once, Shan was the brightest investigator of financial corruption in Beijing; he asked the wrong questions and is serving an indefinite sentence in a labour brigade in Tibet where he has learned to love and revere the ageing monks who toil beside him. When the local prosecutor is found without his head, Shan is pulled from his barracks and obliged to investigate.

"On what grounds do you refuse, Comrade Prisoner?"

Shan did not reply. On the grounds that I cannot lie for you, he wanted to say. On the grounds that my soul has been worn to thin threads by people like you. On the grounds that the last time I tried to find the truth for someone like you I was sent to the gulag for my trouble...

Tan slowly drained his tea and shrugged. "Still, you are not permitted to refuse."

With Prosecutor Jao the fourth senior official to be killed, is there a Tibetan nationalist conspiracy? Or are the monks right to fear the return of Tamdin, demon of protective vengeance? And what is the role of the American geologists Rebecca and Kincaid? Shan is determined to find the truth before the army starts shooting his labour brigade, but wherever he turns he finds himself caught up in the contradictions of Chinese rule and his own conflicting loyalties...

This is a powerful and moving thriller whose polemic against Chinese rule in Tibet and admiration for the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism never takes over from breakneck tension and the slow deliberate unravelling of a complex and ingenious plot. The more we read, the more we are caught up in the cold chill of high plateaux and betrayal; we learn with Shan to trust nobody, and be surprised by unlikely virtue. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Debut thrillers are ten a penny, and it's a plucky reader who can plough their way through them all. But Pattison's remarkable piece is one that demands to be noticed amidst all the competition, as his complex narrative (owing not a little to Eco's The Name of the Rose, and none the worse for that), has both a heady plot, lashings of atmosphere and a strong investigator in veteran police Inspector Shan Tao Yun. A headless corpse is found by a prison work gang on a windswept Tibetan mountainside. The right man to solve the case is clearly the wily Shan, but he is somewhat inconvenienced by having to serve an indefinite sentence in the gulag for offending the party in Beijing. Against his better judgement, the district commander is obliged to release him to tackle the murder before a US tourist delegation arrives. And before long, Shan is knee-deep in political intrigue, Tibetan sorcerers, corrupt party officials and even the Buddhist resistance movement. As well as the perfectly handled thriller elements, Pattison freights some serious political points into his ambitious narrative, and this is the sort of book that has one eagerly awaiting the second outing from its tiro writer. (Kirkus UK)

Pattison debuts with this superb whodunit that leads an alienated Chinese detective to a cabal of hypocritical bureaucrats, meditating monks, and meddlesome Americans in contemporary Tibet. Serving an indefinite prison term in a Tibetan slave-labor camp for having embarrassed a high-ranking Party minister, former Public Security Investigator Shan Tao Yun is compelled by Colonel Tan, the fastidious Party boss of a remote county, to fabricate a report. The report will explain to Beijing the inexplicable murder of the local prosecutor, whose decapitated corpse was found buried near a road that must be completed before the American tourist season. The Buddhist monks in the camp, though, would rather be tortured or shot than work on a road where the prosecutor's "hungry ghost" is lurking, especially since they believe the murder was committed by Tamden, a supernatural demon bent on avenging Chinese persecution. Shan knows that failure to appease the Party's perverse sense of justice would make things only worse for the Tibetan people, whose religious faith he yearns to understand. Like Arkady Renko in Gorky Park, Shan finds that his effort to hide the truth paradoxically leads him to buried secrets within the Party hierarchy itself - secrets hidden in ancient Tibetan caves in an American mining project whose naive scientists claim to want only what is best for Tibet. Alternately thwarted and helped by Yeshe, a brainwashed former monk, and by a cynical Chinese prison guard, Shan develops a marvelously complicated vision of an intricate, defiantly fatalistic nation inseparable from the beautifully bleak landscape that has shaped it. He also discovers a surprising dignity and compassion in some of his fellow Chinese, who remain enslaved to the venalities of leaders past and present. Breathlessly suspenseful tour of a dangerous and exotic landscape, where opposing forces, political and magical, give way to ah eerie, mystical truth. (Kirkus Reviews)

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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars definitely a good read , especially for Tibet lovers, 28 Nov 2000
The Skull Mantra is the best read for both thillers and Tibet lovers. It keeps you reading with the intrigue of the plot itself as well as with all the magic the writer succeeds in trasmitting of Tibet, its people and buddhism. Despite the tragic set of the story - mainly a prison camp for Tibetans - and the rendering of the appalling conditions which Tibetans are submitted to by the Chinese invaders, the book is pervaded and can transmit a sense of joyful acceptance of life as it is, the joy which reaching one's true inner self represents. Besides being a good thriller, this is also the story of the protagonist, funnily a Chinese who though turns out to be a true tibetan in both way of living and way of thinking, and who, prisoner among tibetan prisoners, is forced by the Chinese authorities to solve a series of crimes perpetrated against Chinese government representatives. Eliot, please hurry up! I do look forward to your second best seller!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Raises the bar for the genre. Superb., 9 Jun 2005
By A Customer
Eliot Pattison stands head and shoulders above most authors writing mysteries and thrillers today. No. I take that back. He towers over them. I haven't been this excited about a new author in years. Fusing elements of police procedural and pedal-to-the-metal thriller, all flawlessly integrated with the remote Tibetan setting, "The Skull Mantra" is our introduction to dogged, unassuming Shan Tao Yun, a former Inspector in Beijing who has subsequently spent years as a political prisoner alongside lamas and freedom fighters. He is temporarily released for a specific purpose: to solve a murder that has occurred near the labor camp. However, he soon comes close to despair as it begins to appear that the murder was a demon.

Pattison is a first-class prose stylist. The story flows quickly and smoothly, untangling the mystery one revelation at a time, yet the author doesn't skimp on the visual detail that is necessary to bring this remote setting to life for readers who have never been there. The characterizations are economical and realistic. The monks and lamas make utterly sympathetic martyrs -- one of the hardest literary tricks to pull off. Pattison does it effortlessly, and I think this is because he believes whereof he writes: "The Skull Mantra," like its sequels, is a field guide to the dying practices of Tibetan Buddhism, suffused with the author's political indignation over the fate of the minorities who have the misfortune to live within the boundaries of modern China. My sole reservation about Pattison's writing is that he occasionally demonizes Beijing and mainstream Chinese culture. You start to think, "Oh come on, it can't really be as bad as all that!" However, that these doubts arise at all is a testament to Pattison's intimacy with his material: it is a rare thriller that feels as convincing as nonfiction. For sheer authoritativeness, "The Skull Mantra" bears comparison to "The Constant Gardener" and "The Quiet American." Higher praise than that there is none. So, hats off to Eliot Pattison, and let's hope he keeps writing.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant - couldn't put it down, 6 Jun 2001
By A Customer
Wonderful story and characters that came to life - I was there as Shan tried against great odds to solve the murder - but it also told me so much about Buddhism and life in Tibet that I am now hooked and want to learn more.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars 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... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Wyvernfriend

5.0 out of 5 stars Tibetan mystery
This is quite simply an brilliant read from first page to last. This book takes you into a whole new world cand is completely different too any other book of this genre. Read more
Published on 15 Jan 2007 by A. P. O'brien

5.0 out of 5 stars an awesome blend of Tibet's past & present!
When a headless corpse is uncovered by a prison work gang on a windy Tibetan mountain, veteran Beijing police inspector Shan Tao Yin would seem the perfect man to solve the crime... Read more
Published on 31 Jul 2001 by Rebecca Brown

5.0 out of 5 stars A great thriller that also lets us see inside another world
The Skull Mantra will keep you hooked from the beginning. It is a delicious tense detective thriller that also introduces the reader to the beauty of the Tibetan/Chinese... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2000 by dsmith@uk.elcamino.com

3.0 out of 5 stars Exotic setting, but poor plotting
I was expecting a lot more from this book, since it won an award in the US. While the Tibetan setting and the alien culture is interesting, the writing slips into pretentiousness... Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2000

4.0 out of 5 stars A moving story can be confusing at times,but stick with it.
"The Skull mantra" is a very moving story, but it can become confusing and I felt a little lost at times. Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2000

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