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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
challenging
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you like Lincoln rhyme novels this is a typical one. I loved the theme of chinese culture in this one, it seemed to set it apart from the others that I've read. It was very well researched with twists as always that I never saw coming
Boring. I could see the "twist" a mile away, the Ghost's fate is improbable, and Rhyme is a jerk.
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I went into this book not expecting to be blown away. I find that nothing that I've read from Deaver has yet compared to the first Lincoln Rhyme novel - [b:The Bone Collector|6260623|The Bone Collector (Lincoln Rhyme, #1)|Jeffery Deaver|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347775552s/6260623.jpg|2589896]. The plot quality appears to be going slightly downhill, though far from jumping the shark. On the other hand, I was not looking forward to reading about Chinese gangsters and human trafficing. As I've mentioned before in my thriller/mystery reviews, I am not too fond of organized crime in my fiction. Give me a serial killer, or a butler with a grudge - anything that doesn't involve gangs and drug peddlers, - and I'm happy. Here, however, Lincoln and Amelia are on the hunt for a notorious snakehead from mainland China, who downs an entire boat carrying illegal immigrants to the USA. Yawn, next please.
Behold, I actually enjoyed The Stone Monkey, and enjoyed it even more than Lincoln's previous escapades in hicktown from the last book. I was surprised. Deaver has a talent to make his readers care about minor characters. Those one-book characters that are usually killed off in a thankless manner of redshirts actually have personalities. He also has a number of aces hidden in his sleeves, even if you think the action is done and resolved. I was on the edge of my seat a number of times.
There were a few things that bothered me that I do have to mention:
1. I wish Deaver would stop making all Chinese sound like this.
I DO FENG SHUI FOR YOU. I CUT DEMON'S TAIL LONG TIME.
Just because your characters are fresh off the boat, it doesn't mean they need to talk like Mr. Miyagi and endow the clueless white people with pearls of ancient wisdom.
2. Amelia is too super badass cop for my liking. In real life she wouldn't be able to just jump red tape and do whatever she felt like doing (ie. diving with little experience against all safety regulations). There are specialized people in the police force that do these jobs, and some former patrol officer cannot ignore chain of command just because she works with a consulting detective now.
3. I actually wanted to slap Amelia in this one, not once, but several times. She constantly breaks regulations and does stupid crap like revealing sensitive information to a civilian. I need this woman to smarten up. I also wish that Deaver would have taken more time before his push Lincoln and Amelia into a relationship. I find tension between to characters that are secretly attracted to each other is much more interesting to follow than outright romance (kind of like they spoiled X-Files by making Scully and Mulder a couple in the end).
Behold, I actually enjoyed The Stone Monkey, and enjoyed it even more than Lincoln's previous escapades in hicktown from the last book. I was surprised. Deaver has a talent to make his readers care about minor characters. Those one-book characters that are usually killed off in a thankless manner of redshirts actually have personalities. He also has a number of aces hidden in his sleeves, even if you think the action is done and resolved. I was on the edge of my seat a number of times.
There were a few things that bothered me that I do have to mention:
1. I wish Deaver would stop making all Chinese sound like this.
I DO FENG SHUI FOR YOU. I CUT DEMON'S TAIL LONG TIME.
Just because your characters are fresh off the boat, it doesn't mean they need to talk like Mr. Miyagi and endow the clueless white people with pearls of ancient wisdom.
2. Amelia is too super badass cop for my liking. In real life she wouldn't be able to just jump red tape and do whatever she felt like doing (ie. diving with little experience against all safety regulations). There are specialized people in the police force that do these jobs, and some former patrol officer cannot ignore chain of command just because she works with a consulting detective now.
3. I actually wanted to slap Amelia in this one, not once, but several times. She constantly breaks regulations and does stupid crap like revealing sensitive information to a civilian. I need this woman to smarten up. I also wish that Deaver would have taken more time before his push Lincoln and Amelia into a relationship. I find tension between to characters that are secretly attracted to each other is much more interesting to follow than outright romance (kind of like they spoiled X-Files by making Scully and Mulder a couple in the end).
“Why don’t you people just stay at home? Fix your problems there.”
Deaver put this ugly question into the mouth of a racist INS agent, interrogating an illegal Chinese immigrant. But we all know it could just as easily have come from Donald Trump’s maniacal berating of former Mexican president, Vicente Fox, in support of the construction of his hated border wall. THE STONE MONKEY, a tale of a psychopathic human trafficker and the cultural difficulties of large scale immigration, ostensibly illegal, by refugees from Communist China, was written twenty years ago but right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment in the USA today has made it more timely now than when Deaver first put the tale to paper.
Forensic scientist extraordinaire, Lincoln Rhyme, and his partner, Amelia Sachs, have partnered up with the FBI and the Coast Guard on a sting operation to capture “the Ghost”, a homicidal human smuggler who has earned that moniker with his uncanny ability to move immigrants and himself and vanish into thin air. As the trap is set to close on a certain capture, the Ghost does the gruesome unthinkable. He explodes a bomb and scuttles the ship in a cruel, pathological attempt to murder the ship’s captain, its crew and the entire cargo of immigrants. When the Ghost melts into New York City’s China town, Deaver and Sachs are embroiled in a desperate race to track him down before he murders the remaining survivors and disappears once again into the criminal ether.
Aside from being a typically brilliant Lincoln Rhyme thriller with the usual string of extraordinary deductions from the most unassuming tidbits of forensic evidence, THE STONE MONKEY is also an informative commentary on the Chinese culture. We see policing from a Chinese police officer’s perspective which, aside from the main plot, is fascinating in its own right. We also see the struggles of Chinese dissidents to leave Communist China and to assimilate into our entirely foreign western culture.
And, of course, we see racism, hatred and xenophobia. And what was the hopeful immigrant’s answer to the INS agent’s bigoted and spiteful query? Well, here it is … a devastating mic-drop take down of US jingoism and self-congratulation:
“Not our fault … Coming here not our fault!”
Amused, the INS agent asked, “Not your fault? Who do you want to blame?”
“You country!”
“How do you figure that?”
“You not see? Look around! All you money and richnesses, you advertising, you computers, you Nikes and Levis, cars, hair spray … You Leonardo DiCaprio, you beautiful women. You pills for everything, you makeup, you television! You tell whole world you got fuck everything here! [You] all money, all freedom, all safe. You tell us everybody how good is here. You take our money, but you say to us mei-you, go away! You tell us our human rights terrible, but when we try come here you say mei-you!”
And THAT from Jeffrey Deaver (bravo!), an author it must be remembered from the USA!
Paul Weiss
Deaver put this ugly question into the mouth of a racist INS agent, interrogating an illegal Chinese immigrant. But we all know it could just as easily have come from Donald Trump’s maniacal berating of former Mexican president, Vicente Fox, in support of the construction of his hated border wall. THE STONE MONKEY, a tale of a psychopathic human trafficker and the cultural difficulties of large scale immigration, ostensibly illegal, by refugees from Communist China, was written twenty years ago but right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment in the USA today has made it more timely now than when Deaver first put the tale to paper.
Forensic scientist extraordinaire, Lincoln Rhyme, and his partner, Amelia Sachs, have partnered up with the FBI and the Coast Guard on a sting operation to capture “the Ghost”, a homicidal human smuggler who has earned that moniker with his uncanny ability to move immigrants and himself and vanish into thin air. As the trap is set to close on a certain capture, the Ghost does the gruesome unthinkable. He explodes a bomb and scuttles the ship in a cruel, pathological attempt to murder the ship’s captain, its crew and the entire cargo of immigrants. When the Ghost melts into New York City’s China town, Deaver and Sachs are embroiled in a desperate race to track him down before he murders the remaining survivors and disappears once again into the criminal ether.
Aside from being a typically brilliant Lincoln Rhyme thriller with the usual string of extraordinary deductions from the most unassuming tidbits of forensic evidence, THE STONE MONKEY is also an informative commentary on the Chinese culture. We see policing from a Chinese police officer’s perspective which, aside from the main plot, is fascinating in its own right. We also see the struggles of Chinese dissidents to leave Communist China and to assimilate into our entirely foreign western culture.
And, of course, we see racism, hatred and xenophobia. And what was the hopeful immigrant’s answer to the INS agent’s bigoted and spiteful query? Well, here it is … a devastating mic-drop take down of US jingoism and self-congratulation:
“Not our fault … Coming here not our fault!”
Amused, the INS agent asked, “Not your fault? Who do you want to blame?”
“You country!”
“How do you figure that?”
“You not see? Look around! All you money and richnesses, you advertising, you computers, you Nikes and Levis, cars, hair spray … You Leonardo DiCaprio, you beautiful women. You pills for everything, you makeup, you television! You tell whole world you got fuck everything here! [You] all money, all freedom, all safe. You tell us everybody how good is here. You take our money, but you say to us mei-you, go away! You tell us our human rights terrible, but when we try come here you say mei-you!”
And THAT from Jeffrey Deaver (bravo!), an author it must be remembered from the USA!
Paul Weiss
This book was unable to hold my attention like other Jeffrey Deaver's books. The plot was outlandish. I know Asians, particularly Chinese are very resourceful and can quickly adapt to any circumstance, anywhere in the world. But the way the illegal immigrants (who hardly speak English) escape death and manage to steal and drive a vehicle, read a map and get to the given address on the very day they land in the US, was really too much. Amelia's character also gets tiresome.
Didnt realize I had already this book. Need to keep a better list of my books. But a good crime book.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
This is more of a synopsis because I can never remember what I've read.
A boat carrying a large number of illegal immigrants (undocumenteds) is on it's way to the US when the ship is spotted by the coastguard. The snakehead (the Ghost) blows up and sinks the ship, killing many of the passengers. He then goes on a rampage to kill the remaining survivors, masquerading as Dr. John Sung (a passenger on the ship) to gain information about the location of his 'piglets'. Unaware of this, Sachs continues to visit Dr. Sung for advice regarding her arthritis and problems having children. Rhyme, as always, figures out the twist and the Ghost is captured in an elaborate misdirection fuelled takedown. However, once captured it is decided he will returned home and tried in China, meaning, due to his connections in high places, he will walk free again. However, Rhyme saves the day by discovering the real motive for the Ghosts actions on the ship, and the political decisions made throughout the investigation to keep the Ghost out of custody. Rhyme threatens to go public with evidence against several high ranking officers unless they hand hm over to the FBI.
This book was very slow to start with and it took me a while to get into it, but once I did I enjoyed it. The story of Sachs and Rhyme's relationship always keeps me coming back for more - I want to know how they're doing! As always there is a huge twist which kept me reading and the takedown of the Ghost, (though I predicted it) was great nonetheless.
This is more of a synopsis because I can never remember what I've read.
A boat carrying a large number of illegal immigrants (undocumenteds) is on it's way to the US when the ship is spotted by the coastguard. The snakehead (the Ghost) blows up and sinks the ship, killing many of the passengers. He then goes on a rampage to kill the remaining survivors, masquerading as Dr. John Sung (a passenger on the ship) to gain information about the location of his 'piglets'. Unaware of this, Sachs continues to visit Dr. Sung for advice regarding her arthritis and problems having children. Rhyme, as always, figures out the twist and the Ghost is captured in an elaborate misdirection fuelled takedown. However, once captured it is decided he will returned home and tried in China, meaning, due to his connections in high places, he will walk free again. However, Rhyme saves the day by discovering the real motive for the Ghosts actions on the ship, and the political decisions made throughout the investigation to keep the Ghost out of custody. Rhyme threatens to go public with evidence against several high ranking officers unless they hand hm over to the FBI.
This book was very slow to start with and it took me a while to get into it, but once I did I enjoyed it. The story of Sachs and Rhyme's relationship always keeps me coming back for more - I want to know how they're doing! As always there is a huge twist which kept me reading and the takedown of the Ghost, (though I predicted it) was great nonetheless.