Rating: 
Summary: Jeffs rocks the boat but not my world
Review: I find it hard to suspend my disbelief when the INS would go to an outside, civilian source to capture a smuggler and finding ways to get Rhyme involved in case after case while he has no official standing must be one of the hardest things that Deaver has to do, given Rhyme's lack of mobility and official standing.
That said, THE STONE MONKEY, the fourth in the Rhyme/Sachs series, gives us an interesting glimpse into the labyrinthine world of Chinese society. A snake head (or human smuggler) known as The Ghost, has deliberately scuttled a ship containing dozens of Chinese emigrants before reaching New York's shores. Two families escape and The Ghost methodically begins tracking down the last survivors who can link him with the disastrous voyage.
The book begins with Lincoln Rhyme monitoring the Coast Guard's progress at intercepting the ship while members of the FBI, INS and NYPD are comfortably sitting with him in his townhouse. The shooting begins and Rhyme immediately dispatches Sachs to look at the crime scene, even though her involvement is sanctioned through the NYPD through official channels, it's done so through abnormal procedures.
Over the course of the book, we find out that some of the ship's inhabitants aren't who or what they seem and The Ghost's alter ego was a genuine surprise for me. As the bodies pile up, Rhyme sends Sachs in her muscle car all over New York and Chinese cop Sonny Li (a wonderfully quirky character) to collect evidence in order to divine The Ghost's whereabouts. As always, microscopic grit left in his footprints virtually leads the investigators right to the snake head's front door.
For me, the best part of the book was when the claustrophobic Sachs is given the daunting task of processing a crime scene submerged in icy cold water, the sunken Fouzhou Dragon, in which she, incredibly, finds a survivor. What she discovers there is somewhat reminiscent of the scene in which investigators are exploring the wreck of the barge in Boris Starling's STORM.
The scene at the airport, in which the captured Ghost is about to be extradited back to China, was a bit too much like the classic whodunits of the Christie era, in which the suspects are gathered together to hear the detective pontificate about the evidence and to whom it leads.
About the only real departure for Deaver in this so-so book is the fact that there's no accomplice to endanger our heroes in the penultimate chapter, even though there's the inevitable red herring. The operation that was a central theme in THE EMPTY CHAIR is mentioned time and again, which gives some added human dimension and poignance to Rhyme's and Sach's relationship without providing distraction.
Overall, I'm giving this book three stars because I don't think it's up to snuff with Deaver's better efforts such as THE BONE COLLECTOR and A MAIDEN'S GRAVE. Still, it was good to see the supporting characters back in full force, stalwarts like Dellray, Selitto, Bedding & Saul, etc. I'm hoping that THE VANISHED MAN, which came out yesterday, will give the reader some genuine twists, in memorable language, without straining credulity.
Rating: 
Summary: A Welcome Return To New York
Review: I was very disappointed with The Empty Chair. I believe Mr. Deaver strained credibility when he made Sachs a fugitive and I can only guess Mr. Deaver must have been watching a marathon of soap operas on the day he conceived his melodramatic courtroom scene. It took me a week to get my eyes back to normal (they rolled so far back into my head) when Rhyme thrust the courtroom doors open and wheeled himself in just "in the nick of time". Groan!I was pleased that The Stone Monkey places Sachs and Rhyme back in familair territory and impressed with the thoroughness of Mr. Deaver's details of Chinese life both in the home country and in America. There was also a joy this time in the challenge to try and guess the inevitable plot twists before they happened. Mr. Deaver does an excellent job in keeping the pace tight and smoothly flowing until chapter 47. That's where my only reservation kicks in. Without hopefully giving anything away, I just found it a tad hard to believe that Rhyme's efforts at the airport would be so easily successful. Other than that, The Stone Monkey was a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Has Its Ups and Downs..
Review: Deaver seems to be targeting the movie rights for this book - this work seems to be specifically written with a movie in mind... not that a movie on the same wouldn't be interesting, though!
Extremely fast-paced, the book provides informative insight into Chinese society without sounding patronizing. Lincoln Rhyme's deductions are amazing as usual although Amelia Sachs steals a bit too much of the thunder in this book, compared to the others in the series, no complaints on that count anyway.. Overall, the plot, involving Rhyme/Sachs and the agency's hunt for a dreaded Chinese human-trafficker, has its ups and downs but remains quite entertaining all the same - worth a read, but dont think, a second.
Rating: 
Summary: Not disappointed
Review: I have always enjoyed Jeffery Deavers stories. I was not disappointed with this one either.
Rating:
Summary: Best Deaver Ever
Review: This was the BEST Deaver ever. This author never disappoints, and keeps on producing better and better work. I could not put this fascinating book down, even to eat. Deaver's powerful descriptions and breath-taking character adventures keep the reader involved and guessing right to the last page. His lead characters in this series are fascinating. I can't wait to read his next book!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: I stopped reading after 420 pages. Why?
Deaver just has to bring up to many impossibilities to keep his story moving.
First: an illegal immigrant who steals a truck and drives into NY to China town, without getting lost?? Come on.
Second: going back to the ship to find more clues an find some one alive?? We get a crash course scuba diving on top. What is the use for the story?
And what is this with the relation between Rhyme and Sachs?
Badly drawn characters, bad setting mixed with some orientalism.
No thanks. I`ll go back to Conelly, Cohen and Pelecanos.
Don`t waste your time on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Good try but .....
Review: Deaver has tried to put some Chinese traditions and stories into his fiction. Being a Chinese, I can tell you some of them are right but some are not. So don't pretend you know and quote those Chinese words and traditions.
Rating:
Summary: A Chinese puzzle
Review: As always a Lincoln Rhyme novel cannot help but please. This one had a lot of insight into the Chinese ways of life. I love a book that adds fuel to my constant reach for knowledge. In this case my knowledge was begun at a zero percent so all was new. I have always felt that fiction has a lot of fact envolved and Mr. Deavers certainly did his research for this one. I will be reading more in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: It just tastes bad
Review: The first two Lincoln Rhyme novels were engaging and seemed written on solid ground, but this latest of Deaver's attempts is flakey at best.
The inconsistencies and just plain "suspend your disbelief" factor throughout the book make it childish and very disappointing to anyone who reads a lot and lives in the real world.
Where has Deaver lived all his life, one has to wonder, that he knows so little of basic reality. The actions and behavior of his characters is so out of kilter as to make your stomach ache. Deaver's characters are a bit too vardboard cutout and he moves them around to suit his plot instead of creatively letting the characters drive the story. Perhaps his agent or editor or Deaver himself is too enamored of the Hollywood screenplay money to write an effective novel anymore. It happens all too often. I have to say "Not even a good try, Mr. Deaver."
Rating:
Summary: Very, very good
Review: I am a big fan of Deaver and am glad to report that he is back up near his best in this book. As always, his characters are always working against time, his pace is fast and his plot wrenches back and forth--his story turns are almost impossible to pick. Deaver loves closing a chapter vaguely, letting you *think* you know what happened, then suddenly changes direction when you pick the thread back up a few scenes on. You realise that what he wrote *was* entirely accurate, but that it was some assumption of yours that caused you to jump to a conclusion. He also loves leaving the reader off-balance, dying to know what comes next.
The Stone Monkey is a very good cat and mouse tale, with (for once) the bad guys just a step or two behind the good guys. Just when you think one is going to outsmart the other, something happens to ratchet the tension up another notch. His prose is terse yet eloquent, with no unnecessary flab, just razor-sharp observations and great scene-sketching that disclose a superb authorial eye.
There were a couple of things I found niggling, but not enough to put me off. One was a habit he picked up in the Blue Nowhere which I find annoying and hope he stops--Deaver goes a bit over the top in trying to salt the novel with little bits to add verisimilitude (here, dividing chapters into "the hour of the rat", "the hour of the rooster" to add a bit more supposedly authentic Chinese flavour) which I found a bit forced and hollow. It's like he consciously hunts for little gewgaws to stash in his prose, but they just feel ... fake. The other is that it became a little easy to pick the Ghost towards the end--his general motivations weren't all that clear, and a few confusing sequences needed to be explained, but it suddenly became clear what Deaver still had stashed up his sleeve, and, sure enough, it let the book down a bit to see I was right.
That said, the Stone Monkey still has Deaver's trademark suspense--the underwater sequence in particular will have you white-knuckled, and you can really feel the tension mount in some beautifully-written scenes. Great stuff, and glad to see the Blue Nowhere was just a bit of an aberration. 4 1/2 stars.
If you like this, you will like his others, and also check out his "location scout" series--some of the most gorgeous prose I've seen in a thriller, as well as a great plot.
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