The Skull Mantra

Eliot Pattison

Sep 2008 · Inspector Shan Tao Yun Book 1 · Sold by Minotaur Books

About this ebook

Winner of the 2001 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, The Skull Mantra was a sensation when first published and received wide acclaim from critics and readers alike. The Skull Mantra is ranked as a novel about a people and a place--the Tibetans of the high Himalayas--as it is a gripping thriller.

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 someone high up in Beijing's power structure. Granted a temporary release, Shan is soon pulled into the Tibetan people's desperate fight for its sacred mountains 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.

The Skull Mantra is the winner of the 2000 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

Ratings and reviews

I like books thar also describe different cultures This book describes Tibetan culture along with the mystery a fun read

I have devoured this whole series. Absolutely fabulous. Mystisism, mystery and history.

About the author

Critical acclaim ranks The Skull Mantra as a novel about a people and a place-- the Tibetans of the high Himalayas-- as it is a gripping thriller. Winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, author Eliot Pattison masterfully scales the heights of the genre, taking the readers to the top of the world while he chills us to the bone.