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STONE MONKEY
by Jeffery Deaver
Simon & Schuster, March 2002
414 pages
$25.00
ISBN: 0743221990

Our ancestors came to the United States to escape the poverty and intolerance of their native country. Today, people are fleeing to what they consider the land of freedom. In The Stone Monkey Jeffrey Deaver has tried to take us into the minds of those who wish to bring their families to a better life, and those who prey upon them.

A boatload of Chinese people are purportedly being brought to the US by a smuggler, a snakehead, who has promised them freedom, for a price. He doesn't realize that the INS was waiting for this particular ship, and was ready to interdict it before it landed on Long Island. The snakehead, called The Ghost, has the Captain try and outrun the cutter, but he cannot. The smuggler locks the refugees and crew in the hold and sets an explosive charge, which is too large and causes the boat to sink prematurely. The ghost escapes but without his money or weapons. A few of the "undocumenteds" also escape and get to the shore.

Lincoln Rhyme, the quadriplegic criminologist, and Amelia Sachs, his assistant had been instrumental in helping the FBI and INS find the ship. When it is spotted coming in to shore, Amelia drives out to "walk the grid," to try and send enough information back to Rhyme so the team can determine where the survivors went.

Apparently, two families, a strange young man who happens to be a policeman from mainland China, a Chinese doctor and The Ghost all survive. The smuggler is trying to track down the survivors and kill them. The families are trying to avoid both the US Immigration officials and the snakehead in a country new to them, a country whose language they understand only slightly.

Sachs, although hindered by the feds, and Rhyme, from his bedroom, work through all the problems until they find the truth. There is less gratuitous torture in The Stone Monkey than in the past, and Deaver takes a little more time to try and humanize Lincoln and Amelia.

Reviewed by Barbara Franchi, May 2002

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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