Bones Of The Earth-Eliot Pattison Once Again Brings His "A" Game To Tibet

When I realized that there were no mysteries in my March reading line-up, I decided to default to one of my favorite series.  There were ARCs from two of them waiting to be read.  I chose Bones of the Earth by Eliot Pattison because it's going to be released later this month.  I love Eliot Pattison's protagonist, Shan Tao Yun, once a highly skilled investigator in Beijing who was transformed into a dissident and an ally of Tibetans by his government's policies.

I have to confess that I haven't loved all the books in the series.  It's particularly unfortunate that the last time I was provided with a review copy of a volume from the Inspector Shan series, it was Mandarin Gate which I ended up liking less than I anticipated.  See my review on my earlier blog here.  Let's just say that I didn't consider it one of Pattison's best.  I hoped to have a better reading experience with Bones of the Earth  which I downloaded from Net Galley.

                             

The central conflict in this book was over the building of a hydro-electric dam which involved destroying a mountain under the protection of a type of pre-Buddhist  spirit known as Gekho. Bon is the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet.  According to a web page dealing with Bon that I found, Gekhö means demon tamer.  That web page also contained an image of a Gekhö spirit.

 Since the Chinese authorities don't believe in demons or protective spirits, their view was that Tibetan superstition was standing in the way of progress.   There was also an archaeological team at the site which included an American woman.  They too were regarded by the Chinese in charge of the dam project as an obstacle to be removed.  Yet strange events were associated with the dam project.   Was there really a spirit protecting the mountain, or did these incidents have  a more rational explanation?

Character development was another strength of Bones of the Earth.  I particularly liked seeing more of the human side of Chinese Colonel Tan, Shan's superior.  While Tan needed to be ruthless when he was challenged by would-be rivals, he also displayed compassion and decency.  There was a minor character whose name I enjoyed.  Her name was Tinkerbell though she was often called Tink. I found her rather unexpected.  Shan himself was in a state of change, moving on to another stage in his life.

If this is really the last book in the Inspector Shan series, as the description states, I can say that I thought that it ended well.   I would like to imagine that  Shan's future life is going to be happy, or as happy as can be managed in Chinese occupied Tibet.  Bones of the Earth ranks with the best books in this series.   The political, spiritual and personal elements combined to make this book a superior mystery.