| The death of the Dalai Lama triggers a search for his
reincarnation: three monks and an English photojournalist make the
dangerous journey into Tibet to find the newborn and remove him to the
relative safety of Dharamsala, evading all the while the Chinese
security forces, for whom, as much as for Tibetans themselves, the Dalai
Lama represents the hope of freedom for his country. Mountains are
climbed, chasms bridged, noble sacrifices made. Adam is not the only one
writing Tibet-centred thrillers at the moment, but while Eliot
Pattison's impressive novels are rooted in a deep knowledge and
admiration of-and understandable concern for-the culture, Adam's book,
it's perhaps not unkind to say, is more interested in the subject as
High Concept. Still, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with the
book, as an example of the genre (down to its off-the-peg title): it
rattles along fluently with sympathetic characters, convincing detail,
and enough cynicism to give a contemporary ring. The list of the
author's previous is purged of his first three novels, UK-set crime
thrillers, in favour of the international skullduggery of his more
recent output. Judging by this showing, he could end up being marketed
as a new Philip Kerr.
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