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: 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: 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: 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: Not the best Deaver, but still a good read
Review: I am a big fan of Jeffrey Deaver, and especially his Lincoln Rhyme series. The newest entry in the series is another fast paced thriller, but far less involving than his previous books. I am not sure if I am getting tired of Rhyme's domineering manner, or the relationship between Lincoln and Amelia, but some spark was missing from the book in regards to their relationship. On the other hand the introduction of the Chinese police officer Sonny Li was a great addition, and he virtually steals the book whenever his character is around. The story of a group of illegal Chinese immigrants who are hunted down by the smuggler who brought them to this country was
very interesting, and I learned a lot about a subject I never gave much thought to. The villainous Ghost almost seems indestructible, however I figured out his identity long before the revelation in the book, so it was not much of a shock to me. There seemed to be far fewer of Deaver's trademark twists and turns here, and I never had that edge of my seat feeling until the last forty or so pages of the book. Overall a pretty good thriller, but those of us who love Deaver probably expect more, because he is so good at what he does. Still an average book from this author is much better than most books of this genre out there.
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: 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: 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: 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: 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.
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