Michael Walters (2)Besprekingen

One of the things I like best in mystery-action books and series is getting to learn about a new place. So I picked this one up because of its setting: Mongolia, with a Mongolian detective. I was a bit disappointed in the mystery story itself, which was less about solving a string of garish murders than about the political and economic intrigue within which they are set. And oddly, we learn less about the Mongolian characters than about the visiting English policeman. However, it looks like there are others in this series, and I'll be happy to read on, hoping the author gets a better grip on storytelling, because I'm still interested in the place and in the characters.

a serial killer in Mongolia turns out to be a man driven crazy by father's death being used by crooked mining interests

a serial killer in Mongolia turns out to be a man driven crazy by father's death being used by crooked mining interests

Enjoyable travel to Mongolia and its people via this police procedural with mystery.

Review: The Shadow Walker by Michael Walters.

The book is set in Mongolia where the people scuffle to find a place in the post-global world. I thought the story was written with ease and the characters were well created for their place in the story. At first it was hard to get into the story because the author stacked up murders one after another. As I read on I finally was able to understand the complex situation and follow the story. However, the story seems to lack hard core descriptions for the brutal crimes committed. As many murder scenario’s the book prevailed it needed more captivating language to keep the pages turning. Most of the action took place in the Capital City of Ulan Bator. Yet, I will be fair as this was the British author’s first book.

The story begins with the first of many murders and the city police, Chief Dorlpalam feels he needs someone with experience to handle the case because the body showed signs that they have a serial killer in the making. They call in former Crimes Chief Nergui to handle the investigation and British CID Inspector Drew McLeish to assist in finding the murderer before someone else dies. They worked as a team with no hesitation at all and besides being co-workers they became friends. Before they had time to investigate one murder another body is found, mutilated as the first. So that did reveal that they were looking for one person. By the time a forth body was found, a British geologist, the trail begins to lead them through the capital city, to the steppes and the Gobi desert where they learn of a connection between the killings that kept them at the Gobi desert area for some days.

They went on working as a team with Chief Nergui providing the insight to the city, the suburbs and the Gobi desert while Inspector McLeish brings the profiling up to date as the body count mounts and one of the bodies was a police officer. While in the Gobi desert area they stop at a tourist camp during the investigation to get more background information on the murdered policeman. As the story goes on political and business motivations gets introduced into the story and Inspector McLeish is kidnapped….The kidnapping gets the clock ticking faster and Chief Negrui is making complex connections that leads him to an area of haunting abandoned factory’s to conclude the suspenseful crime story to an end. I thought the ending was abrupt and not completed.
However, the plot is what kept me reading….

I did not find the characters easy to care about. I kept thinking I should rereading the first book because it made more sense, but eventually after meandering the story comes together.

Badly mutilated bodies are turning up all over Ulan Baatar. Is it the work of a psychopath, or are they victims of organized crime? Were the victims chosen at random, or are they connected in some way? Nergui, the former head of Serious Crimes and now a Ministry employee, returns to the police department he recently left to spearhead the investigation. It's an awkward situation since he could be perceived as usurping the authority of Doripalam, his hand-picked successor in the Serious Crimes unit. Drew McLeish is a Manchester policeman sent to represent the interests of one of the victims, a British national. Hoping to benefit from McLeish's experience with a kind of crime that is rarely found in Mongolia, Nergui includes him in the investigative team.

I hoped that the atmosphere of the unusual setting would compensate for any plot deficiencies in this first-in-series mystery. Sadly, it didn't. The book is full of British characters -- a British policeman, the British ambassador, and British businesspeople and tourists. The British author knows how to write British characters, but I'm not sure he knows how to write Mongolian characters. British terms like "lorry" and "flat", and distinctively British phrases like "it's taking time to get it sorted" are used throughout the book. The combination of the language and the British characters gave it more of a British feel than a Mongolian feel for me. The expected tension never developed, and the complexities of the motive(s) for the murders weren't adequately described. It wasn't a bad read, but there wasn't anything about it to make me want to continue reading the books in this series.

Atmospheric mystery set in Mongolia. I liked the policeman, Negrui - he was an interesting character - and the setting. The murders were overly brutal and the mystery itself was pretty convoluted. For me, Negrui moved this from a 3 to a 3.5.½

Interesting locale, but a little brutal. I much prefer the Eliot Pattison novels which have a similar setting, but are more sympathetic to the people.

Reviewed for RTE.

Less of a full review, and more of a note about the first book in this (now) 3 book series set in Mongolia. THE SHADOW WALKER is the first book, which I read recently, having already read the 2nd in the series (the third is here in the queue).

A first book in a series is often slighty problematic and I have to say having read the 2nd book (The Adversary) which I loved, I was willing to cut this first book a lot more slack than perhaps others would be willing. In THE SHADOW WALKER, the two main characters from the series Negrui and Doripalam are introduced, but a lot of the central focus of the story is around a blow-in English detective, bought into help out the locals when a number of bodies are found in increasingly violent killings.

This device is a little unsatisfactory as the action therefore has an overtly "British" feel to it and it seems to deaden any feeling of Mongolia - despite a visit onto the steppes at one point. There's also a slighty unsatisfactory aspect to the plot with yet another serial killer which ends in a rather predictable manner.

Having said that, there are glimpses of the ongoing personalities of Negrui and Doripalam and if they appeal to you, then you should want to move onto the second book.