'Summoning is a dangerous thing. To the old Buddhists, words were the most dangerous weapon of all.'

Shan Tao Yun is a former investigator for the chinese government who once got a little too close to the truth. Now he breaks rocks in a Tibetan prison camp high in the Himalayas. Only the remarkable courage of the Buddhist monks who are his fellow prisoners give him the will to survive.

But when a smartly dressed headless corpse is discovered on the bleak moutainside, Shan is forced to become a detective once more. And as he uncovers a web of intrigue involving a beautiful American mining engineer, Tibetan sorcerers, corrupt Chinese officials and the Buddhist Resistance, he begins to realise that far more than his own survival is at stake.

Eliot Pattison is a world traveler and frequent visitor to China, whose numerous books and articles on international policy issues have been published on three continents.The Skull Mantrais his first work of fiction and won him the Edgar award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.

The most evocative and compelling thriller since Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow