The Stone Monkey : A Lincoln Rhyme Novel

Rating:
Summary: Another Deaver Winner
Review: As usual Deaver takes a subject and covers it thoroughly. This story is about illegal Chinese aliens. You think you have the story figured out and than he throws in one of his curves and you have to try to figure the story out all over again. My friends and I wish he would put more in the story about the personal side of Lincoln and Amelia's relationship.

Rating:
Summary: Sinks like a stone, stinks like a monkey
Review: This is the first book by Deaver that I have read. Apparently there are a couple of prequels to this novel involving the same main characters -- I will never read them.

Deaver has adequate style and a talent for pacing a mystery thriller. He also has some skill in character development; however, he only applies this skill to the secondary characters in this story. Perhaps the main characters in this story appeared so flat to me because I have not read the other novels in this series, but judging by their inconsistent behavior, bizarre motivations, and the melodramatic dialogue in this novel I doubt the other books could be much better. Worse than Deaver's hackneyed mystery cut-out-characters is his insistence that the reader be willing to accept the most unbelievable and unlikely situations for the sake of a dramatic situation or plot twist. Like many other second-drawer mystery writers, Deaver portrays such notable organizations as the FBI, INS, US Coast Guard, and the NYPD as ridiculously inept and corruptible. Nor has he made any attempt to research the actual policies and procedures that these organizations would follow in the situations presented in the story. Deaver also has a poor grasp on the politics of international economics. This is normally excusable in a mystery writer, but since Deaver sets Chinese/American economics as the foundation of his final plot twist the whole story comes crashing down in the final chapters of the novel.

A note to Deaver and other mystery writers: it is not a requirement for a great detective to be a pompous jerk and an abrasive know-it-all. It has been 115 years since Doyle introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes, and we have had 115 years of mediocre mystery writers plagiarizing Doyle's character. Please try to be original.

And also, if the final "twist" in your story is so complicated and so unbelievable that you must expend two chapters in trying to explain it, perhaps it shouldn't be there in the first place. I give this book a D.


Rating:
Summary: Not One of Lincoln Rhyme's Better Cases
Review: I've just recently become a fan of Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novels, and of the current five books starring the quadripelegic criminalist, The Stone Monkey, while still full of exciting and suspenseful scenes, is the worst of the series.

Rhyme and his usual crew-his partner/lover Amelia Sachs, his aide Thom, hard-boiled detective Lon Sellitto, FBI agent Fred Dellray, and forensic specialist Mel Cooper, are on the trail of a homicidal Chinese smuggler known as the Ghost. The Ghost scuttles a ship full of immigrants at the beginning of the novel, and then Rhyme and team try to capture him as the smuggler tracks down the surviving immigrants and attempts to murder them.

There are still plenty of memorable scenes chock full of suspense and intrigue, but I wasn't able to become as interested in the plot as I was in previous Rhyme novels. This is mostly because the Rhyme and his colleagues whom I've just mentioned have little to no character development at all. Instead, Deaver focuses on the family of immigrants who fled into the city, and a Chinese detective named Sonny Li.

The Chang family receives way too much development in the novel, and their segments end up being rather boring and uneventful (except for an awesome part involving the grandfather). Sonny Li is a very interesting character, but he tends to steal the show from Rhyme, usually solving clues and figuring out stuff before the criminalist can. This didn't seem fair when it is Rhyme and his team who are supposed to be the ones who solve the crime.

Also, what i love most about Deaver's books is that you can always count on a)the villain always gets plenty of chapters which track his movements and delves into the insanity/psychosis of his mind b)an underlying theme unique to the novel in question and c)a plethora of unexpected twists and turns.

However, the Ghost came off to me as little more than a vulgar terrorist, and is an amateur compared to some of the other criminal masterminds and evil villains Deaver has created in the past, such as The Coffin Dancer (of the novel of the same name) and the Digger (from Deaver's fantastic non-Rhyme work, The Devil's Teardrop). Also, the theme of China and chinese-american communities wasn't very interesting when compared to some other themes Deaver has used in the past, and feel like they're included just to waste space.

There are still plenty of forensic details that are interesting even to the most lay of readers who have no knowledge of the field. But the plot twists are, for the most part, somewhat predictable. There was nothing that caught me completely off guard, as in previous Rhyme novels.

Perhaps the best parts of the novel are the scenes with Amelia. She has developed very well since we first met her, and the personal issues that she faces in the book are very intriguing and cause the reader to feel some degree of sympathy for her. Overall, three and a half out of five stars.



Rating:
Summary: Horrible! This is Science Fiction, not Fiction!
Review: This was my first Deaver book...and my last.

The suspense factor was "ok", but the sections on scuba were ridiculous. A diver (with only 25 logged Caribbean clear-water dives) goes into a new NY/NJ wreck, alone (no dive buddy), on a single tank. And the Coast Guard approves this dive...laughable. Then once in the wreck, the diver goes down a dumbwaiter passageway measuring 2' by 2', without taking off any gear!!!

You might ask why I point this out...The above was 2 chapters, not just some passing reference, a very material piece of the story. If this one section [which I know something about] is that outlandish, what does that say for the other sections that I'm not as informed about.

Complete Science Fiction!!! You are better off reading tea leaves than this book.


Rating:
Summary: A gem of a stone
Review: Lincoln Rhyme, detective extraordinaire and forensics expert, is hot on the trail of a chinese human smuggler/terrorist nicknamed The Ghost.
A couple of the illegal immigrants being shipped to the US have escaped, are in hiding, and are being hunted down by The Ghost. The combined forces of the NYPD, FBI, as well as the INS must stop him before all of immigrants are taken out.
Jeffery Deaver excels here and one can almost perceive the inspiration of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Sonny Li, an undercover cop from China, is the most outstanding character in the book.
Since most detective thrillers are generic, it's good to come across splendid work like this.
Lincoln Rhyme fans obviously will enjoy The Stone Monkey, but initiates will also be thrilled by it.

Rating:
Summary: Diver's surprise
Review: I got a chance to read this book while I was diving off Andros Island in the Bahamas. It was my first Deavers novel, but definitely not my last. The handling of international slave trade and the unexpected twists make this book well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: An A* read.
Review: I did this book for my English Book Talk Assignment, and received an A*, causing my teacher to take up Deaver novels herself. I love the Rhyme books, especially this one for its Chinese references, and you'll be worse off if you don't read this.

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!!!