Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Skull Mantra | 1999 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 2 | Water Touching Stone | 2001 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 3 | Bone Mountain | 2002 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 4 | Beautiful Ghosts | 2004 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 5 | Prayer of the Dragon | 2007 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 6 | The Lord of Death | 2009 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 7 | Mandarin Gate | 2012 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 8 | Soul of the Fire | 2014 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 9 | Skeleton God | 2017 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
| 10 | Bones of the Earth | 2019 | Eliot Pattison | Buy |
The Inspector Shan series by Eliot Pattison spans ten novels published between 1999 and 2019. Shan Tao Yun is a former senior investigator from Beijing who has been exiled to a labor camp in Tibet. Despite his fallen status, he is repeatedly pulled into murder investigations that the Chinese authorities either cannot or will not solve properly. Each book puts Shan at the intersection of Tibetan Buddhist culture and Chinese political power.
The first book, The Skull Mantra, won the Edgar Award and set the template for the series: a complex mystery embedded in a deeply researched cultural and political setting. Subsequent novels like Water Touching Stone, Prayer of the Dragon, and Bones of the Earth continued to explore Tibet’s landscape, spiritual traditions, and the human cost of occupation. The series is as much about Shan’s personal transformation as it is about solving crimes.