The Chinese Alchemist

by Lyn Hamilton

Book Overview

Antiques dealer Lara McClintoch is targeted by ruthless criminals while trying to recover an eighth-century Tang Dynasty box that contains an immortality elixir formula etched on the inside. The rare item holds the key not only to the death of a museum curator, but to Laras own survival.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425219062
• ISBN13: 9780425219065
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
• Length: 257 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 6.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

The Chinese Alchemist

A fun read following the heroine around China. A fast moving plot and interesting characters. My first book by Ms. Hamilton, but not my last.

Mystery Nestled In Chinese Boxes

Hamilton just gets better and better at bringing together an ancient mystery with a current day missing artifact. There is also fascinating information on how art auctions work and how the Chinese are trying to prevent their heritage from being sold to foreign collectors. However, this is not Hamilton's best book as it reads as if it was a longer and denser book and then was edited down, leaving some character development missing and some of the action confusing. And, add in one too many coincidence.

Hamilton delivers another winner!

Lyn Hamilton has graced readers with a series of stories featuring antiques dealer Lara McClintoch that take place in beguiling locales. The Chinese Alchemist is no exception. Lara's pursuit of a rare Chinese box takes her into the cities and byways of that exotic country whose elusive culture is only recently becoming known to Westerners. As always, the stakes go higher as intrepid Lara finds herself in a fight for survival. Eleanor Sullivan, author of Assumed Dead.