The first novel featuring veteran police inspector Shan Tao Yun.
A headless corpse. A disgraced investigator. A conspiracy of silence . . .
When a headless corpse is found by a prison work gang on a windy Tibetan mountainside, veteran police inspector Shan Tao Yun might seem the perfect man to solve the crime - except that he himself is serving an indefinite sentence in the gulag for offending the Party in Beijing.
Desperate to close the case before an American tourist delegation arrives, the district commander has no choice but to grant him a temporary release. Embittered about everything except his compulsion to find the truth, the brilliant Shan faces an ultimatum: solve the case fast and in a politically expedient fashion, or the Tibetan priests in his work brigade will be punished.
When the early evidence shows that the killer was an ancient Buddhist demon and party officials try to thwart his investigation by arresting an innocent monk, Shan is thrown into a maelstrom of political and religious intrigue involving American mining interests, Tibetan sorcerers, corrupt party officials, a secret illegal monastery and the Buddhist resistance movement.
With the epic struggles of the Tibetan people as a backdrop, 'The Skull Mantra' stands as a story of great hope and great tragedy, of incredible greed and stalwart selflessness, of the gulf between East and West - and of the wider gulf between those who live for enlightenment and those who live for power.
