Shan Tao Yun is a Chinese political prisoner who is part of a forced labor gang building roads in Chinese-occupied Tibet. Before he ran afoul of a Chinese official, Shan was a top investigator known for his skill and intelligence.
A Chinese official has been found murdered at a site not far from where Shan and his fellow prisoners have been working. The Chinese man in charge of this remote district, Colonel Tan, frees Shan from the labor camp to investigate the murder. What Tan doesn't know, but soon learns, is that Shan is not going to help him cover up the murder, but will dig for the truth to the best of his considerable ability. Complicating everything are Shan's fellow prisoners, a group of Buddhist monks who have gone on strike, refusing to continue working on the road due to their concerns about the murder which they believe involves the ghost of the murdered man and a demon who they claim is responsible.
Shan's life among the imprisoned monks has lead him to embrace some of their Buddhist teachings. And investigating the murder leads him even deeper into understanding their teachings about balance. He becomes very interested in their view of the world and that helps him figure out exactly why and how the dead man met his end.
This was an OK read. There is a lot of Buddhist teachings which, as a non religious person, didn't appeal to me at all. Stories of demons killing people, of sorcerers, of monks flying through the air just seemed like a fantasy story to me. Oddly Shan seems to buy their tricks while still knowing it is fakery, even when he understands how the tricks were pulled off.
Anyway, it is a really long book, takes forever to get anywhere and has a lot of Buddhist religious thought which I didn't enjoy reading.
Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews. Major reviewers seem to really like the book, so even though I thought it too long, too slow and too religious, I still gave it a "good" rating.
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