Ron K. (WhidbeyIslander) -
What's the Tibetan word for Laborious?
Parts of Clason's book were almost as difficult to slog through as he describes getting into 1930's Tibet by a pyi-ling (white man). The first sign of trouble is a 17 page long tale about how the manuscript in question was obtained by the âJapâ (yes, ethnic slurs abound, common for the times, although the author makes his main character much more accepting of different people), and although the narrator says âI'll try not to bother you with unnecessary details,â he does just that.
I suspect someone really interested in Tibetan culture and religion would rate this a 4 or 5 star book. Someone like me looking for a golden age mystery to rival John Dickson Carr rates it 2 or 2 ½ stars. There are other long passages detailing boring escapades by other characters escaping from Tibet and China during the period before the area became a war zone, and the history of many of the artifacts from Tibetan religion located in the locked room where one of the deaths occurs. None of this is directly integral to the mystery plot, but it does pad the book's pages.
One of the characters is a Tibetan lama whose grasp of colloquial English is difficult to follow sometimes, leaving me skipping some of his dialogue. He'd come to Chicago to retrieve a sacred book stolen from him by one of the victims, which seemed a little far-fetched.
The locked room is well thought out, although the killer went to an awful lot of trouble to pull it off. Both good and bad luck play a part in it. As in many classics of the era all the suspects are gathered in a room as Westborough details how the killer pulled off his crimes. The identity is not a total surprise, but makes sense given all the revealing facts.
Parts of Clason's book were almost as difficult to slog through as he describes getting into 1930's Tibet by a pyi-ling (white man). The first sign of trouble is a 17 page long tale about how the manuscript in question was obtained by the âJapâ (yes, ethnic slurs abound, common for the times, although the author makes his main character much more accepting of different people), and although the narrator says âI'll try not to bother you with unnecessary details,â he does just that.
I suspect someone really interested in Tibetan culture and religion would rate this a 4 or 5 star book. Someone like me looking for a golden age mystery to rival John Dickson Carr rates it 2 or 2 ½ stars. There are other long passages detailing boring escapades by other characters escaping from Tibet and China during the period before the area became a war zone, and the history of many of the artifacts from Tibetan religion located in the locked room where one of the deaths occurs. None of this is directly integral to the mystery plot, but it does pad the book's pages.
One of the characters is a Tibetan lama whose grasp of colloquial English is difficult to follow sometimes, leaving me skipping some of his dialogue. He'd come to Chicago to retrieve a sacred book stolen from him by one of the victims, which seemed a little far-fetched.
The locked room is well thought out, although the killer went to an awful lot of trouble to pull it off. Both good and bad luck play a part in it. As in many classics of the era all the suspects are gathered in a room as Westborough details how the killer pulled off his crimes. The identity is not a total surprise, but makes sense given all the revealing facts.
