Eric Stone has crafted another gem of a novel. The exotic Asian settings are extremely well-drawn, although often not very enticing to this reader. The interesting characters have distinctive voices, and their well-expressed dialogue drives the plot through an escalating series of conflicts to the understandable climax.

Ray Sharp, the series' protagonist, is a fascinatingly complex semi-hero. His impulsive behavior couple with bursts of introspection to mark him as a flawed but recognizable modern man.

I'm eager to read book 3 in the series to witness the next step in Ray Sharp's maturation. ( )

Eric Stone has written a second installment with as Ray Sharp as the main character. His first was The Living Room of the Dead but it is not necessary to read that one first.

Ray Sharp is drawn into the vile and vicious world of Asian art theft while investigating a company as part of his current job. Even after the job ends, Sharp can not let go of the need to investigate the source of the thefts with the ultimate dream of ending the illegal smuggling and letting Cambodian art stay in the land in which it was created. Sharp is a realist, he knows the senselessness of one man fighting the system but he can not turn his back on the thievery even if he loses everything by his prying.

Ray Sharp is the main character but it is the setting that carries the novel. Eric Stone is able to portray a place and a culture that is different from anywhere else on earth. His strength as a writer is to use expressive and, dare it be put, 'sharp' words to illustrate both the setting and the art. He is best at bringing the art involved to life, using it to show the heart of a land rendered through its statuary and carvings to represent a time, a place and a people. He writes toughly and tautly, his words give birth to the reality of Asia. a place that Eric Stone knows first hand. His knowledge and research of his subject matter is evident and adds greatly to the book.

One of the peculiarities of this book is its portrayal of women. The female characters that Stone uses range from a dwarf to a beggar woman, and abound as prostitutes and one legged creatures. They are created as often beautiful but never whole. It seems in part to be a comment on the life and culture shown in the book and, perhaps, also on the character of Ray Sharp. Even being lonely and given a wide variety of opportunities, the only actual sexual experience he allows is with an ancient massage woman. Romance is not welcomed due to a recent unhappy love affairs with a, surprise, Russian prostitute which must be part of the first Ray Sharp book.

The plot becomes a suspenseful trick as Sharp is captured and escapes the various bad guys. He is definitely a master escape artist. The ending is, as it must be, not a complete one. The issue of stolen art is not over, the reign of terror in Asia is not over and this series is not over.

Bleak House is becoming a noteworthy publishing entity for quality, well written books that are especially unique. If the cover imprint is Bleak House books it can be assumed the reader will not be bored nor should they expect the usual. A complacent reader will not get the full affect of books such as Grave Imports. It is a mystery/thriller but it is also a commentary on the modern world, its foibles and its fancies. The world seen through Ray Sharp's eyes is not a pretty world, it is not nice and heart, but it has heart and hope. The story starts with a statue of heads, it ends in a temple of a head- a fitting symbol of this thriller for the thinking man. ( )

A sequel to The Living Room of the Dead, this installment in the Ray Sharp series takes the American former journalist who now investigates investment possibilities for businesses on the trail of stolen Cambodian antiquities, a trail that leads him to China, Bangkok, and Cambodia, where he ends up captured by (in more than one sense of the word) a Khmer Rouge revolutionary who finances his doomed philosophy by selling his nation's artistic heritage. Unlike John Burdett or Colin Cotterill, Stone gives us Southeast Asia through American eyes, and it's a smelly, corrupt, exciting, and fascinating place, vividly realized by someone who knows it well. ( )