The Stone Monkey Lincoln Rhyme a quadriplegic ex-forensics specialist together with police office and lover Amelia Sachs join forces with the marine navy to track down the notorious human smuggler and hitman Gui also known as
Ghost before he killed the chinese undocumenteds he had smuggled in a boat. However before the boat was intercepted the Ghost manages kill all the crew and blow up the boat leaving the undocumented hanging on their dear life while the ghost himself escapes. Because of the bad weather the immigrants are having a difficult time trying to steer the liferaft therefore hitting a rock and was thrown offshore. Meanwhile back at the shore an accomplice was already waiting for the Ghost. The Ghost upon seeing two of the immigrants manages to kill them but was in return
left stranded by the accomplice who was unable to persuade him to leave them and escape in fear of them getting caught by the police. After stealing a car Ghost escapes the scene. Amelia Sachs was to sweep the
crime scene shore when she found a man apparantly an imiggrant off shore almost unconcious about to get swallowed up in the sea. For fear of being unable to save the man in time, Amelia quickly dives toward the water and saved him. After being saved, the man reveals his name as John Sung to Amelia. Seeing that John Sung was injured with a gunshot wound, Amelia sent him to the hospital and later detained for illegal entry to USA. Back in Lincoln Rhymes house, one of the immigrants secretly arrived and wants to steal clues left from the Ghost incident. But he failed because Thom (Lincoln's aide apparantly left the door open intentionally to lure the immigrant), caught him. The immigrant introduced himself as Sonny Li a undercover policeman from Japan who was here for the secret mission of catching the Ghost which was also wanted in China. He is later on comfirm to be speaking truthfully and help Lincoln brainstom Ghost's next target.Sonny Li urges Lincoln to find the accomplice as to he willl most probably be next target. Lincoln ignored him which was a mistake because the killer found the accomplice and killed him. Lincoln began to trust the judgement of his new found friend. Rhyme and Sachs eventually tracks down one of the family the Wu's and so did the Ghost. However Rhyme was already one step ahead of him when he substituted the chinese couple with undercover cops to lure out the ghost. Sadly, the operation failed due to Alan Coe, one of the INS with a personal grudge with the him, inconsistent timing. The INS agent fired a little too early that it let the ghost escape once again. This leads to leaving Alan Coe out ot the investigation and it left the Wu's and John Sung in a safehouse. The story shifts towards the second family Chang. Father of the family, Sam Chang
finally decided to confront Ghost by posing as a traitor that would lead him to the family Chang. He knows that he may not live the ordeal so he said goodbye to his wife and father. The grandfather asked for a last tea drink with his son. Sam drinks the tea and fells asleep because of a drug the grandfather added in the tea. Then the grandfather sets off to face the Ghost. Upon failing to trick the Ghost he killed himself with an overdose of morphine. Sachs, Sonny Li and the others arrives in the scene too late. Sachs was left brainstorming with Rhyme and the rest. Left alone pondering with himself Sonny Li' realized how to track down the Ghost. When he finally reaches for the Ghost, the ghost surprises Sonny Li with his identity which is John Sung.Caught off guard in a few seconds costs him his life. But Sonny manages to grab something of Sung that left his lifeless face with a smile for he knew Rhyme would connect the evidence with the killer. With the evidences collected from Chang's and Sonny's murder, Rhyme found the last piece of the evidence that link this to the ChMeanwhile, Sach's was in a friendly terms with Sung and informed him that they had already found the Chang's whereabouts. Pretending that he is worried about the Changs, John Sung urged to tag along with them as a translator. Finally Coe, Sachs and John Sung rides in a car to the Changs. Along the way, Sach's phone rang, Rhymes informed her on the identity of the Ghost. As she ends the call she told Coe to pull over, quickly aims the gun at Coe telling him he is under arrest. Baffled Coe was handcuffed and lead away with the other police. Eventually, they arrived in Changs house. Once Sachs and John Sung stepped inside the house, Sachs acted with lightning speed and aims the gun towards John Sung other police emerges inside the crooks of the house. They finally arrested the ghost. Sachs used Coe by arresting him and letting the Ghost think that they still have no idea on the Ghost's identity.It was found that Ghost killed John Sung took all his personal affects,stole a car left the dead in compartment hides the car, shoots himself and jumped into the sea. The case was far from over when they learned that the Ghost will be taken back to Japan for the crimes he had commited there which they knew was a lie because Japan was planning to release him. Rhyme and Sachs are horrified and attempt to stop it. Rhyme and the company raced to the airport and saw two INS agents excorting Ghosts. Rhyme announced that he will reveal a corruption inside the INS and he plans to release this to the media if they would escort Ghost back to Japan. INS left Ghost in New York. Later on they learned that several high level security personel are taking " early retirement". The Ghost was tried in America.
The novel ends with Rhyme deciding not to continue with his surgery which Sachs feeling relieved. Finally Sachs oversees a petition for the adoption of a baby whose parents were killed aboard the ship for the Changs who have alwalys wanted a daughter. The immigrants are awarded asylum. This is the forth book of Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme novel series. One of which is made into a movie, The Bone Collector.
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