The Ninth Buddha [Paperback]

Daniel Easterman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1990

A 10-year-old boy is inexplicably kidnapped at knifepoint and swept off into the mysterious East. His father, former British intelligence agent Christopher Wylam, launches a frantic search, finding him in a gilded Buddhist monastery. Wylam battles to rescue his son, seen by some as a mystical reincarnation, and by others as a pawn in a war of unfolding nightmares. HC: Doubleday.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

East collides with West--on a battlefield drawn along political, religious and metaphysical lines--in this superior, offbeat thriller set mainly in India, Tibet and Mongolia in 1921. When his 10-year-old son William is kidnapped at knifepoint, semi-retired British intelligence agent Christopher Wylam embarks on a nightmarish search that leads him to a gilded Tibetan monastery complex high in the mountains. William's abduction is bizarrely linked to a prophecy that an incarnation of the Buddha will become rightful ruler of Mongolia and the world. Bolshevik agents and White Russians want control of the young future potentate; so do Tibetan lamas and the British. The plot turns on reincarnation at a couple of key points, yet Easterman ( The Last Assassin ; The Seventh Sanctuary ) provides a cultural context that lends credibility. Christopher's tragic romance with Chindamani, a small, delicate woman whose body sometimes serves as vehicle for an incarnating goddess, makes for erotic, spiritual love scenes. To write about the exotic East without romanticizing is difficult enough, but Easterman goes one better: his suspenseful, beautifully written novel attains some kind of wisdom, an exceedingly rare achievement in an adventure-thriller.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Having spent the "war to end all wars" as an intelligence agent in the Far East, Christopher Wylam returns to England to a young son he does not know and a dying wife. The boy is kidnapped not long after a bond forms between him and his spiritually weary father. When no ransom is demanded, a determined Wylam, acting on information from his former boss, travels to India to recover his son. From there the family is drawn deeply into the political turmoil (aided by the superpowers) raging from Tibet to Outer Mongolia. Returning to an area he knows well ( The Seventh Sanctuary, LJ 3/1/87; The Last Assassin, LJ 7/85), Easterman has woven an exotic and panoramic tapestry of human relationships, and civil and religious conflict. Although the high-level suspense is sometimes weakened with overly dramatic scenes, this novel of a man willing to risk all to regain his family is a solid thriller.
- V. Louise Saylor, Eastern Washington Univ. Lib., Cheney
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm) (July 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061000582
• ISBN-13: 978-0061000584
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,147,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easterman at his best, June 10, 2001

By 

Paul Freeman (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ninth Buddha (Thorndike Large Print Popular Series) (Paperback)

Daniel Easterman is, in my opinion, one of the best thriller writers around, but this book is easily his best (there are few of his books I have not read). Once you have finished reading the start of the book you will soon find it hard, if not impossible, to close this book until you have read through to the end.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!, December 17, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ninth Buddha (Paperback)

Just a great book all around. It may take 50 pages until you get into it, but after that... Easterman is the best author around today, and this may be his best book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not that great, June 21, 2006

By 

F.Faulkner "F.F." (Hartford, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ninth Buddha (Paperback)

I picked this book up at a bookstore on vacation. The setting, premise and cover blurbs made it look very interesting. It was interesting, but so ridiculously far-fetched to make one laugh out loud. And the reader could clearly see everything coming a mile away. It perhaps is immature writing by the author, after all the copywrite says 1989, but I found it highly predictable and preachy. I gave it 3 stars for setting and atmosphere, but it was TRITE. Give me a break, a woman spending a lifetime in virtuous Buddhism suddenly jumps in the sack with a white guy from England? Not to mention the book ends badly, everybody dies, and it just fizzles.