Eric Stone

Eric Stone's Grave Imports is an action-filled detective novel based in Hong Kong but that travels throughout Southeast Asia. Specifically, it involves the trade in ancient Cambodian art (rendered on stone and in temples, and therefore its existence in the international art market implies destruction of the host buildings). In the corruption that is rampant throughout Southeast Asia (one might say Asia), this trade ends up involving a lot of different kinds of folks, most of whom are bad, and a lot of people die.

 

But there are lots of good ones, too. Our hero, Ray Sharp, is an American writer based in Hong Kong who has joined a private company that gives him a chance to be an unofficial detective. There's a small group of characters hanging out with him, including a female Chinese dwarf from Mexico! OK. There is the inevitable whore with a golden heart (I'm in love with so many of these, I really need to stop reading), and her story is interesting. She was purchased as a child of 8 (among a group of 10 kids) from a refugee camp in Thailand by a "retired" Vietnamese general, who is at the core of our unethical art trade. He gave his kids a special sort of education, and when they had served their indenture (to the age of 18), he released them from servitude, and provided similar jobs for them.

 

We meet plenty of more ordinary folk in our travels throughout Southeast Asia, including a poor woman and her young child who prove invaluable both for plot reasons and also for moral reflection. At one point, our hero is taking refuge in her riverside hut, and starts to think that, really, this is the simple life he's always sought. Yes, until he thinks of how she comes up even with the bare necessities of life.

 

Some good is done, and we virtual tourists get to see a lot more of Southeast Asia. Without the humidity...

-- Michael Broschat, March 2009