Eliot Pattison has accomplished this with his Edgar Award-winning debut, The Skull Mantra.

Like Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko, Shan becomes our Don Quixote, an apolitical guide through a murky world of failed socialism.Set against a background that is alternately bleak and blazingly beautiful, this is at once a top-notch thriller and a substantive look at Tibet under siege., 'Like Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko, Shan becomes our Don Quixote, an apolitical guide through a murky world of failed socialism.Set against a background that is alternately bleak and blazingly beautiful, this is at once a top-notch thriller and a substantive look at Tibet under siege.' - Publisher's Weekly (starred review) on The Skull Mantra 'It's rare when a mystery brings something fresh to the genre. Now time is running out for Shan to find the real killer. Then, a Buddhist priest is arrested, a man Shan knows is innocent. Granted a temporary release, Shan is soon pulled into the Tibetan people's desperate fight for its sacred mountains and the Chinese regime's blood-soaked policies. Methodical, clever Shan is the best man for the job, but he too is a prisoner, deported to Tibet for offending someone high up in Beijing's power structure. So the case is handed to veteran police inspector Shan Tao Yun.

Found by a Tibetan prison work gang on a windy cliff, the grisly remains clearly belong to someone too important for Chinese authorities to bury and forget. The corpse is missing its head and is dressed in American clothes. The Skull Mantra is ranked as a novel about a people and a place-the Tibetans of the high Himalayas-as it is a gripping thriller. Winner of the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, The Skull Mantra was a sensation when first published and received wide acclaim from critics and readers alike.

The skull mantra