Lord of Death, An Inspector Shan Investigation

From an Edgar Award winner comes this murder mystery in a “superlative series set in ethereal, enigmatic, long enduring Tibet” (Booklist, starred review).

Shan Tao Yun is an exiled Chinese national and a former Beijing investigator, on parole from a Tibetan gulag. One day, he is ferrying a corpse on muleback over the slopes of Chomolungma—Mount Everest—at the request of a local wisewoman who says the gods have appointed this task to him, when he encounters what looks like a traffic accident.

A government bus filled with imprisoned Tibetan monks has overturned. Then Shan hears gunfire. Two women in an approaching sedan have been killed. One is the Chinese minister of tourism; the other, a blonde Westerner, organizes climbing expeditions. Though she dies in his arms, Shan is later met with denials that this foreigner is dead.

Shan must find the murderer, for it may be the only hope he has for saving his son, Ko—imprisoned in a Chinese “yeti factory” where men are routinely driven mad . . .