The Chinese Alchemist
Lara McClintoch Archaeological Mysteries
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
A client commissions Lara McClintoch to buy an Eighth Century T’ang dynasty Chinese silver box, which contains a formula for immortality. Before Lara can outbid a Toronto museum curator, the box is stolen from a Beijing auction house. Lara follows a dangerous trail through the back alleys of modern China to find the box and the thief. Despite its promise of life forever, the ancient box keeps getting people killed. Lara fears she will be next unless she can uncover the secret behind the heist. The Chinese adventure is the last in this acclaimed archeological mystery series.
“Antiques dealer Lara McClintoch is targeted by ruthless criminals while trying to recover an eighth-century Tang Dynasty silver box with an alchemical for the elixir of immortality etched on the inside of the lid. The rare item holds the key not only to the mysterious death of a museum curator, but to Lara’s own survival…In this 11th outing for the globe-trotting Lara McClintoch, fans will enjoy the China setting as well as the history provided in flashbacks at the start of each chapter. An enjoyable, educational and suspenseful road trip.” --Fresh Fiction
“Chinese history from the perspective of a royal concubine, a eunuch, a family of tomb raiders and even the Chairman himself… Hamilton, who rivals Jan Morris as a travel writer gives her eunuch Wu Yuan a mesmerizing story about serving the Imperial Palace and the Son of Heaven.”
--Kirkus Reviews
“…longtime series fans will enjoy seeing McClintoch in action in China."
--Publishers Weekly
“The mystery reading year is brighter when a new Lyn Hamilton appears…USA today calls these archaological mysteries ‘a wonderful series’ and The Chinese Alchemist is ample evidence: …the plotting that weaves the storyline into a cohesive whole, the exquisite description of people and events, the integration of setting into the story and the character evolution that combines, motive deception and consequences.” --The Hamilton Spectator
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Hamilton's diverting 11th cozy featuring Lara McClintoch (after 2006's The Orkney Scroll), the Canadian globe-trotting antiques expert first faces peril from an Asian organized crime gang, the Golden Lotus, angered by the efforts of Mounty Sgt. Rob Luckza, her significant other, to end its terrorizing of the Chinatown of an unnamed Canadian city that resembles Toronto. Lara keeps a low profile until an old friend, Chinese art historian Dory Matthews, asks her to go to New York to bid on a rare Chinese silver box, but the desired item is brazenly stolen from the auction house. After Dory's sudden death, Lara learns that her friend's will requested that she pursue the box. Lara travels to Beijing, where a series of narrow escapes leaves a trail of bodies in her wake. Despite the often-clunky exposition (both of Chinese history and of the motive behind the crimes), longtime series fans will enjoy seeing McClintoch in action in China.
