The Trail to Buddha’s Mirror

A Neal Carey Mystery, Book 2

By: Don Winslow

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Robert Pendleton is a chemical genius with a fertilizer worth a fortune to whoever controls the formula. Not surprisingly, the Bank, his notoriously exclusive backer, wants to keep an eye on its investment. But so does the CIA. And the Chinese government. And a few shadier organizations. So when Pendleton disappears from a conference in San Francisco, along with all of his research, Neal Carey enters the picture.

Neal knows the Bank is calling in its chips in return for paying his grad school bills. He thinks this assignment will be a no-brainer—until he meets the beguiling Li Lan and touches off a deadly game of hide-and-seek that will lead him from San Francisco’s Chinatown to the lawless back streets of Hong Kong, and finally into the dark heart of China. In a world where no one is what they seem, Neal must unravel the mystery of a beautiful woman and reach the fabled Buddha’s Mirror, a mist-shrouded lake where all secrets are revealed.

©1992 Don Winslow (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“What begins as a routine missing persons case becomes a complex web of deceit, danger, and international intrigue in this superb mystery…. Vivid local color and absorbing historical detail enhance the chase and reinforce suspense as the story reaches its surprising resolution.” ( Publishers Weekly)

Earlier Don Winslow series

I love Don Winslow’s writing. I started with The Cartel and then read almost all of them. I really love the books in California like the Dawn Patrol, & Gentleman’s Hour. He writes great characters; they are flawed, and mostly they know it. And they are also very cool! He has an eclectic body of work, all of which comment in some way on hypocrisy, injustice and redemption. He has a wonderful sense of humor that I love. His books are intelligent. It was nice to find the Neil Carey series. I like most of his later books better though.

Loved it

Wonderfully drawn characters, complex plot, and very witty writing. I’m glad I discovered Don Winslow.

WHY?

The story was interesting, and exciting enough to keep you into it, but the whole time you're just wondering WHY. WHY does the main character keep going the reason given is lame with no foundation or build. it makes the whole story just not make sense!

Too much Foul language

No need for all the cursing, would have been a great book without it. So sad people think they have to have that in a book.

Winslow alway entertaining

What I like about Don Winslow is that he is a good writer, but also in this story we learn about China; it’s history, a geography lesson and entertaining dialogue.

not sure

the story line for this one is so out there it's kinda unbelievable,i like the father character he is level headed Neal not so much to impulsive and not to smart either and I wonder why so much F words the story would be better without it the narrator is a professional job well done

A story of espionage, love, and China

Another thriller with many twists and turns including penetration of the peoples republic of China.

Cracked Mirror

Neil Carey is back for his second adventure, once again charged with finding a missing beauty, along with her scientist boyfriend, a chase that takes him from the slums of Hong Kong to the chi-chi galleries of Marin County, from San Francisco's COIT Tower to a Buddhist shrine on a towering mountain peak in China, from the moors of England to ... well, you get the idea (and I've run out of places).

So three problems: the biggest is that Neil seems to have lost his entire skill set, the details of which were an entertaining highlight of the first entry to this series. Not only is this effective narrative device abandoned, but his actual skills seem to have disappeared, causing him to run into one bad scenario after another, which he only escapes (time and again) through the intervention of others.

Not quite so bad, but not great, is the McGuffin -- granted, this was written in the 90s and set in the 70s, but even so, the secret they're all chasing, shooting and slicing each other up over, eh, not really all that interesting. And then thirdly, the big reveal at the end -- yeah, saw it coming the moment that element was first introduced, Winslow doesn't telegraph it so much as broadcast it. Hand in hand with that is Neil falling for a woman he barely knows who is clearly trying to kill him, his primary motivation for continuing to pursue her across the world. Weak.

On the other hand, Winslow always excels at making his locations full blown characters. Here, he does it twice, first with Hong Kong as it might have existed in the 1970s, and then Red China, in the wake of Mao's death at that time and earlier in the 20th century when Mao's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution caused so much suffering. And his pacing and dialogue are as snappy as ever, well narrated by Joe Barrett (who did not narrate the first Carey book).

So a bit of letdown for me, having only recently discovered Don Winslow's books, and feeling some diminishing returns in this, the fifth title of his that I've read. Will be moving forward the series nonetheless, hoping this was just a blip.

a long story about Chinese mistoque.

this story has international politics, murder and other crimes and international says. it someday a little long g but had a loy of detail about communism in red China. there was re a lot of historical facts about the cultural revolution that are interesting.

A Feint Within A Feint...

Mr. Winslow as obviously done his homework on post-world War II China. this book was published in 1992 I spent a year studying in China right at the time of the Tian An Men Massacre. His depth of understanding of Chinese culture and politics at the time just after Mao is most accurate... a continual Feint Within a feint order prevailed.
This novel is spectacularly narrated by Mr Barrett. he is quite a master of accent and pronunciations. you always knew who was speaking. The Narrative of the story is quite convoluted and filled with long histories. having only read book 1 I expected something different for Neal in book 2. it seems he becomes instantly infatuated with the femme fatale in each of the first two of the series which quickly has him following across the globe after certain disaster. I had been expecting something different from this story, with more plot action. the history lessons proved tedious for me. I must once again compliment Mr Barrett on his spectacular narration. I will definitely get book 3 and see how the familiar cast of characters at home handles the return of our young hero and where he may be off to next.