Disgraced former Beijing Inspector Shan Tao Yun has been living in the remote mountains of Tibet since his unofficial release from a work camp. Without status, official identity, or the freedom to return to his former home in Beijing, he's lived with the forbidden lamas for the past year. But now there's apparently been a murder in a ruined monastery and the very officials who exiled Shan are after his help. In a baffling case involving the FBI, Chinese Ministers, and British relief workers, Shan travels from Tibet to Beijing to the U. S. to find the links between murder, missing art, his former gulag, and his own long-unseen son.

Eliot Pattison's numerous books and articles on international policy issues have been published on three continents. He is a world traveller and frequent visitor to China.The Skull Mantra, his first work of fiction, won the Edgar Award for best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.Beautiful Ghostsis Pattison's fourth novel featuring former Beijing Investigator, Shan Tao Yun.