Rating: 
Summary: The Stone Monkey
Review: I have always been an avid fan of Jeffrey Deaver but this is the second book in the Lincoln Rhyme series that has disappointed. Why is it that Deaver has to keep referring back to the setting up of his characters in the Bone Collector? It's fine if this is the first book you have read but extremely annoying when it is the fourth! I do not need to be reminded of each characters past and the reasons why they have their habits, can we not just concentrate on the story? Am I looking forward to the next in the series? I have to be honest and say NO!
Rating:
Summary: A true disappointment
Review: My mother, like myself, an avid fan of mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels, recommended The Stone Monkey and during some down time I had between semesters, when I could catch up on some junk-food reading, I decided to read it. I thought I'd treat myself to what I thought was going to be a great book. Unfortunately my expectations had been raised much too high, either by her praise or the positive memory I had of the movie The Bone Collector, because this was a true let down. This was my first foray into a Deaver work and I don't plan an attempt at a second, for I truly dislike the way he gets his thrills. I can appreciate when an author can deftly turn the tables on his readers without them having to question all that has come before. Unless I'm reading science fiction or fantasy, I'm very unwilling to suspend disbelief, but that is precisely what I had to do in order for this plot to make any sense. Unfortunately, I can't state all the numerous places in this book that fail stand up under close retrospective scrutiny, without spoiling it for those who might be suckered into reading it. Suffice it say that if you truly appreciate masters of the art of mystery, suspense or thrill, like Thomas Cook or P.D. James, where all loose ends dovetail fittingly into a sensible denouement, you will be disappointed with this book.
Rating: 
Summary: exciting, if predictable
Review: Deaver's story of a snakehead's smuggling human cargo into the US moves along with excitement and suspense. Authors develop their habits. In a Deaver book, you expect that not everybody will be the person they appear to be. If you've read other Deaver books, this will reduce the suspense somewhat. Overall, though, I think the author did a pretty good job of portraying people from a background he is not familiar with, even if there are glitches. A Chinese phoenix does not rise from its ashes. It symbolizes peace on earth, and when it flies, all the other birds follow it. Also, it's nice the way all the characters from Fuzhou learned the Minnan dialect; the Fuzhou dialect is Minbei, northern Min (Min refers to Fujian), not the Minnan, southern Min, of Xiamen and Taiwan. Big deal. We can all enjoy the book even if they speak the wrong dialect, and the author goofs up here and there.
Rating:
Summary: He needed to do his research
Review: I enjoyed the Blue Nowhere and the movie The Bone Collector. While the pacing and the concept of Lincoln Rhyme and his partner Amelia is interesting, it was marred by his inaccurate and stereotypical representation of China and the Chinese characters. I can only think he based his research on the book Greiver: An American Monkey King in China, which is the only place I have ever encountered the ridiculously stupid (and female) name of "Kangmei." Deaver didn't have any more of a clue regarding Chinese names than the author of Greiver. In addition he mixes up transliteration systems (which would all be pinyin if they were from Mainland) and Chinese languages (why would Mandarin Chinese speakers give their child the Cantonese Chinese name of Po-yi?) He makes mainland China sound like it's made up of backwater fishing villages, when it has it's share of modern cities. He has characters praying to Chinese Gods. Gods like Zhen Wu, which even if most religion hadn't been purged from modern China, is not a figure any Chinese person would choose to pray to! The addition of the Stone Monkey pendant only confirms that the fictional and inaccurate work of Greiver played a major part in Deaver's research. Perhaps those who don't know any better and who don't care otherwise will find this an enjoyable read. I probably would have as well, if the glaring stereotypes and errors hadn't been as annoying as a hundred papercuts rubbed with lemon juice the entire time.
Rating: 
Summary: The world's most overrated mystery writer
Review: Jeffry Deaver lays another egg. The Bone Collector should've been a Batman comic book (that would've made it more exciting, anyway), The Empty Chair was idiotic and boring, and nothing really happens in The Stone Monkey. The twists are hackneyed, the plot tired, the strange, hostile relationship between Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs glazed over once again without a milimeter of depth. I'm done with Deaver, Rhyme and the whole series. Go watch the Bone Collector movie. It is the one instance where the film is actually better than the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as The Blue Nowhere
Review: This book is okay. It is not brilliant though. It is about illegal Chinese immigrants who miraculously survive the scuttling of their refugee boat by their snakehead called the Ghost. Not being a nice guy the snakehead spends the duration of this novel trying to track them down and kill them in the streets of New York. Meanwhile agents Rhyme and Sachs try to also find the illegals and stop the murderous rampage of the Ghost. This book does give an insight into what it is like to be an illegal refugee and what it must be like to come from a poor country and see both the superior lifestyle as well as the wastage of the new country. It also shows the resentment of family members to their parents who bring them there for a better life when things are not working out. It is not a bad novel but nothing real exciting ever develops. I have read The Blue Nowhere by Deaver, which is sensational. Check that one out. There are better books than this one though.
Rating:
Summary: Reader from Israel
Review: A pretty good book but longer than necessary. The book is 550 pages and it is ready to be finished at 350. You learn a few things and there are a couple of good twists but they get watered down wit hthe length. Yhis is the first Lincoln Rhyme novel I have read and honestly I can see it being my last.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable
Review: This is a good book, but is predictable almost always, the plot of the book will keep you reading but you will know what will happen in the next page before you read it, including Rhyme's operation. If you already read The Bone Collector or The Coffin Dancer, you will know that Rhyme will deduct everything almost from nothing, and with that you can imagine what will happen next, these three book are alike in his deductions, so if you already read one, you almost read the three of them. This doesn't mean that I won't read another book of Jeffery Deaver, but he has to change something about his writing.
Rating:
Summary: One from Column A, One from Column B . . .
Review: Jeffery Deaver is authoring some of the best mystery novels to date. His 'Lincoln Rhyme' series is excellent, and it subtley puts to sleep (or at least out of the way) some of the frequently preconcieved notions even the best of us have about stereotyping people and pigeonholing their issues. Lincoln Rhyme is of course the brilliant forensic scientist who suffered a spine severing accident rendering him a quad. Others would have given up at that point but Mr. Deaver has us recognizing that 'giving up' was not in Mr. Rhyme's character. His association with Amelia Sachs is to some extent a happy alternative to the Susan of Spenser fame and the Lucy of Elvis Cole fame. A tough, single minded woman she is equally afraid of failure as she is driven to success. Which leads me to why I am tiring of the relationship. It doesn't go anywhere. The story moves at breakneck speed. This paperback was 500+ pages and it only chronologically covers 48 hours. While the novels are great, the dialogue crisp and both literate as well as "New York-ese," and the plots filled with Hichcockian surprises, the relationship is tedious. Why does she have to drive at 101 miles an hour on the Long Island Expressway, have crying jags and do nothing about her arthritis in her leg (Advil, Sachs, the key to anti-inflamatories.) Having said that, this mystery picks up at the end of a long investigation, the smuggling of Chinese immigrants into New York. Once trapped by Rhyme's investigative skills which are both brilliant and resounding in common sense, "The Ghost," a Chinese 'snakehead,' blows up the ship and murders a number of the "undocumented" passengers he was smuggling. Clues abound. Who is he? Why did he kill the passengers? What more daredevil things can Amelia do as Lincoln's legs? Will the Ghost get to the surviving families? Mr. Deaver drops clues to us throughout the book and we are well informed with the sprinkling of evidence that we learn along with the less able investigators from INS, FBI, State and NYPD. The relationship between Sachs and Rhyme keeps intruding. Some readers may like this. I don't know. I want to read a book about a crime, murder, mayhem, kidnapping, evil genius perps pursued relentlessly by homeric investigators. "Relationships" are in a different section of Borders or Waldenbooks or Amazon. Anyhow, that's my gripe. Other than that, Deaver is great. I'll always read him.
Rating:
Summary: Deaver scores again with an interesting & original story.
Review: Jeffery Deaver is probably my favorite fiction author of the mystery/thriller genre. On the whole, I find his writing excellent, his characters well-drawn, and his mastery of suspense and plot twists superior. The thing I found so interesting about Stone Monkey is that it has a unique subject that was new to me--human smuggling. Specifically, the smuggling of Chinese immigrants (mostly dissidents) into America. There is a whole new world to learn about in this book...on top of the good writing and suspense. There is not only the world of human smuggling to learn about but Asian culture. I'm sure Mr. Deaver used some dramatic license in relating some of these facts, but I was still quite impressed at the research he must have done to write this book. The character of Sonny Li, a Chinese detective who comes to America undercover as an illegal immigrant to try to catch the notorious smuggler The Ghost, was a breath of fresh air. He was funny and brash and smart, and I loved that he spoke his mind and didn't treat Rhyme as either a fragile flower or a god. I came to really admire and care for this character. I wouldn't say this is Deaver's best work, but it's still an excellent book and I think that the unique and interesting storyline really adds a lot to the reading experience.
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