The Stone Monkey: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

Rating:
Summary: My Expectations Were Too High
Review: 'The Stone Monkey' is an excellent thriller, a quick starter, lots of action and tremendous twists and turns. If it were by anyone else but Jeffery Deaver, I would give it an unqualified five stars. Unfortunately, JD set such a high standard for his Lincoln Rhyme series, (and let's not forget my favorite 'Devil's Teardrop'!) that this latest addition could best be called average Deaver. The plotting is sharp, but he has done better and, for once, I anticipated most of the fireworks.

A ship full of illegal Chinese immigrants is steaming toward NYC and is spotted by the Coast Guard. Rather than be caught, the 'snakehead' (the businessman who sponsors the immigrants) sabotages the ship, which explodes and sinks leaving only a few survivors. The 'Ghost' ruthlessly hunts them down and kills them to eradicate any trace of their existence. While the Ghost gallops through Chinatown and beyond, Rhyme and associates are just a step behind.

This time out, Deaver wrote in such a marvelous character, Rhyme/Sachs were left in the shade. Sonny Li, a wisecracking, cynical, many faceted undercover Chinese cop completely steals the show. I got bored with Sachs' Svengali-ordered crime scene takes and, when not directly under Rhyme's thumb, she appeared distinctly flighty. Omnipresent Rhyme was bested many a time by Sonny's intuitiveness, which put Rhyme's character off-balance. The Chinese patriarchal information was interesting and was well blended into the story.

A good read, worth the time and money, but not ultimate Deaver.

Rating:
Summary: Average Deaver book
Review: After reading this book, I was left with the impression that the Lincoln Rhyme series may be,getting long in the tooth. This novel does nothing to put a spark back into a series that is one of the best of all times.

The story focuses on the Ghost, a man who leads a human-smuggling operation out of China. He is accompanying a group of his 'cargo' on this trip to the U.S. He doesn't realize that the FBI and the INS are using Lincoln Rhyme, the foremost criminologist, to help track the ship and capture him. As the Coast Guard closes on the vessel, something goes wrong, and the Ghost escapes. He pursues the Chinese 'undocumented',while evading the law and the team of Rhyme and Amelia Sachs.

The book reveals interesting tidbits about Chinese culture that I was unfamiliar with. Mr. Deaver also leaves the reader guessing and curious about the identity of the Ghost's bangshou, or spy. But the majority of the book, is a general rehash of most of the other Rhyme books: Lincoln 'walking the grid' through his partner and lover Amelia. Someone on the case will be resentful and doesn't want Rhyme heading the case, the dialogue between Rhyme and his caretaker Thom, some plot manipulation, and other things that I don't want to write, because of their spoiling effects all are typical of these books.

Overall, not a bad book. And, if you haven't read a Lincoln Rhyme novel before, then this is a fine one to read: it is a good gauge of what you will get in the others. It's quick and easy. But, as a long-time Rhyme reader, I felt this installation did not advance the characters any and was only mediocre for the series.

Rating:
Summary: clever and well thought out thriller
Review: A shipload of illegal Chinese immigrants sinks off the coast of Long Island. It appears an explosion has occurred which succeeded in destroying not only the ship but killing many of the passengers onboard. One of the survivors is a smuggler of the Chinese into this country. He is a ruthless killer nicknamed "The Ghost" because he has never been caught and always is ahead of the authorities. The Ghost is intent on killing any of the other survivors of the ship. Involved in the manhunt to capture the killer is the quadriplegic police investigator, Lincoln Rhyme, with his assistant, Amelia Sachs. Rhyme has set up a police lab in his apartment and with the help of the officers in his division, is involved in a cat and mouse chase of The Ghost.
Jeffrey Deaver has written another successful thriller starring one of his most memorable creations, Lincoln Rhyme. Much effort and empathy has gone into the subplot of the plight of the illegal Chinese immigrant. In attempting to write a nonstop action thriller, Jeffrey Deaver resorts to certain stock devices such as some of the impossible escapes of the villain. Sometimes Lincoln's assumptions based on the evidence presented to him are a bit of a stretch. This is something that has occurred in the other Lincoln Rhyme novels. However, characters are well thought out and the story is quite clever and entertaining. Overall, a recommended read

Rating:
Summary: Another cracking read from Deaver
Review: Jeffrey Deaver is fast becoming one of my favourite thriller writers, and with good reason. While authors such as James Patterson and Dean Koontz seem to be taking steps backwards in terms of accomplishment with each successive novel, Deaver just keeps getting better and better.

The Stone Monkey tells the story of the Ghost, a notorious human smuggler, and two families who survive his attempt to scuttle the ship carrying them to the US. The Wus and the Changs disappear deep into the Chinatown network in an attempt to escape his inevitable attempts to wipe out the only surviving witnesses.

Enter Lincoln Rhyme, Amelia Sachs, and a new addition to the team, Sonny Li, a Chinese police officer who also survived the scuttling of the Fuzhou Dragon. Rhyme is locked in a race against time to track down the two families before the Ghost does, but the Ghost seems to always be one step ahead.

Deaver set himself a daunting task writing The Stone Monkey. The intricacies of Chinese culture, and particularly family culture, present him with myriad opportunities to shoot himself in the foot and possibly offend some readers, but the book is obviously meticulously researched and Deaver acquits himself admirably. One does suspect, however, that he doens't entirely agree with the woman's place in a Chinese family unit, and uses a few parts in this book to subtley show this.

All in all, The Stone Monkey is an engaging read and a cracking detective yarn, and is quite likely to ignite an interest in Chinese spiritualism in many readers.

Rating:
Summary: The Stone Monkey: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel
Review: With The Stone Monkey, New York Times bestselling author Jeffery Deaver revives his most beloved characters, Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, and has taken his enormous talent to another level. The book abounds with Deaver's famous trademarks: deadlines every few hours, wholly unexpected plot twists, his breakneck pacing, and characters who are heartbreakingly real. This book reminds us once again reminded why People hailed him as the "master of ticking-bomb suspense." Recruited to help the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service perform the nearly impossible, Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia Sachs manage to track down a cargo ship headed for New York City carrying illegal Chinese immigrants, as well as the notorious human smuggler and killer known as Youling, the "Ghost." But when the Ghost's capture goes disastrously wrong, Lincoln and Amelia find themselves in a race against time--to stop the Ghost before he can track down and murder two surviving families who have escaped from the ship and vanished deep into the labyrinthine world of New York City's Chinese community. Over the next harrowing forty-eight hours, the Ghost brilliantly and ruthlessly hunts for the families, while Rhyme, aided by a quirky policeman from mainland China, struggles to find them before they die and Amelia Sachs pursues a very different kind of police work that may have dramatic consequences for her relationship with her partner and lover, Lincoln Rhyme.

Rating:
Summary: The REAL "CSI New York"
Review: "The Stone Monkey" is another of Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels, and as usual it combines the intracies of crime scene investigation with cliffhanger-a-minute plot twists and turns, as well as the author's exacting research into his topic. You'll quickly realize that nothing is at it seems--you know surprises are coming, and maybe you'll try to anticipate the author's deviousness. And since the author lays the clues right out for you, it can be done (but not easily), so when the secret is revealed it's usually a forehead-slapping moment, when you realize you should indeed have seen it coming.

This time out, the quadriplegic Rhyme and his "walk-the-grid" colleague, Amelia Sachs (as spectacularly neurotic as ever) are involved with the underworld of illegal Chinese immigration. They have to fight not only the perpetrators, but possibly a mole among the various organizations--NYPD, FBI, INS, Coast Guard, U.S. State Department, the Chinese government--involved in the case. Since the book is part of a series, you know the good guys will win, but how? That's where the thrills are.

Notes and asides: on p. 282 the term NYFD is mentioned. Sorry. It's NYPD but FDNY. Mr. Deaver, familiar as he is with things NYC, must know that. Somewhere in Outsourceiana (Indiana? Idaho? Iowa? India?) is a copyeditor who thinks "wow! I saved Jeffery Deaver from an obvious error." Err, no.

Rating:
Summary: Not Anywhere Near His Best
Review: Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, along with INS, are in hot pursuit of the criminal mastermind and international fugitive known only as the Ghost...with the trail leading off Orient Point, Long island and a Chinese cargo ship carrying refugees and human slaves. But as the Coast Guard moves in to arrest, the ship is destroyed in a suspicious explosion and the Ghost once again escapes the law and flees into New York's Chinatown. He's determined to silence forever any survivors who could reveal his identity. Now Lincoln and Amelia embark on a desperate search, uncovering clues along the way that will either lead to success-or certain death. The book is OK, but the outcomes were predicitable and the answers came to Lincoln too easily. Seems like he had access to every bit of information in the world. He didn't have to work hard enough to get the answers
Someone should tell Mr. Deaver that there are 26 characters in the English alphabet, not 25. I found that rather odd, coming from a writer.

Rating:
Summary: When does the movie come out?
Review: So far my favorite Lincoln Rhyme novel. No re-hash-nopsis here but please pick this up if you would like to be entertained. Not only well researched, exciting, and entertaining but also transports the reader to Rhymes world.
Found editing questionables - same as Bone Collector - but will not blame author. They are few and the author has his heart well in the right place. Thouroughly enjoyable!!!

Rating:
Summary: Does not yield the best of Deaver
Review: I would say this book can be enjoyed or not depending on the reader

If you are a new Deaver reader and to this crime genre then you will be jolted by his tricks and turns but if you are an experienced Deaver reader seeking to drink the best juice of his brains as you did in past experiences I can tell you that this story was written employing old gimmicks that will not satisfy your expectations, because you can infer beforehand what card is under his sleeve

In respect of the story, illegal Chinese alien smuggling into the U.S, in my opinion exhibits some research about Chinese culture but poor recollection of INS procedures. The alien movements from the first time they set foot on US soil with no knowledge and not language look not plausible due to both time span and events. Well, miracles can happen !!!

The ending is poor too, our hero Lincoln Rhyme comes reeling off the whole truth hidden behind the tale in a very confusing way, vomiting one fact after the other in many layers and in few pages, all of a sudden, as to definitely nail down the bad guy. Well, miracles can happen !!!

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Although this is my first Deaver read, it was indeed and excellent outing. I was familiar with the characters from the movie, Bone Collector, but at the time was not aware that they were literary creations. I'll read any other Deaver novel I can find based on this superlative introduction! (If only James Patterson would follow his example and resume writing like he still needs the money.)