Dragon Bones (Liu Hulan Series #3) » (Reprint)

Lisa See may not appear to fit the standard conception of a Chinese-American woman, but her deep roots in her Chinese background have set her on a path leading her to being one of the most significant Asian-American voices in contemporary writing.

In a magnificent land where myth mixes treacherously with truth, one woman is in charge of telling them apart. Liu Hulan is the Inspector in China’s Ministry of Public Security whose tough style rousts wrongdoers and rubs her superiors the wrong way. Now her latest case finds her trapped between her country’s distant past and her own recent history.

The case starts at a rally for a controversial cult that ends suddenly in bloodshed, and leads to the apparent murder of an American archaeologist, which officials want to keep quiet. And haunting Hulan’s investigation is the possible theft of ancient dragon bones that might alter the history of civilization itself.

Getting to the bottom of ever-spiraling events, Hulan unearths more scandals, confronts more murderers, and revives tragic memories that shake her tormented marriage to its core. In the end, she solves a mystery as big, unruly, and complex as China itself.

The Washington Post

This is not your ordinary art-theft thriller. Beginning with a horrific mob scene that complicates and possibly threatens the life of its already somewhat troubled heroine, Dragon Bones then sprawls across a continent, exploring the subtleties of Chinese politics, the official and actual Chinese attitudes toward foreigners, and the building of the vast Three Gorges Dam and how it is affecting the countryside, the inhabitants and local and national politics. Lisa See's novel also takes up the frightening power of a rising religious cult and for good measure supplies a mordant view of the international fine-arts auction world. — Michael Kernan