The Stone Monkey

Plot summary

In the novel, we follow Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs, partners and lovers, as they try to track down a ruthless Chinese human smuggler and hitman, 'Gui', translated as 'The Ghost'. The start of the novel sees the Ghost scuttle a ship full of human smugglers as they are intercepted by the coastguard. He escapes to shore via a liferaft, as do some of the 'Undocumenteds' being smuggled into America. Before Ghost escapes to the shore, he shoots several members of the crew and shoots at the escaping immigrants. Near the shore the immigrants hit rocks and several of them are thrown out of the boat, and are washed up on the shore. The Ghost shoots two of them, and steals a car to escape after his accomplice flees the scene on hearing the rapidly approaching police. Meanwhile the immigrants land on the shore and steal a white van from a church.

As Amelia arrives on the scene, she spots a man clinging to the rocks in the sea. Unwilling to wait for search and rescue, she dives in after him and keeps him afloat. Once the S+R crew arrive, they are pulled to shore. They discover the mans name is John Sung, and he has been shot, but insignificantly. He is taken off to hospital, and later placed in detention for illegal entry to USA.

Back at Rhymes apartment, they meet Sonny Li, an immigrant on the ship who is actually an undercover police officer from China, intent on killing the Ghost for personal reasons. He predicts that the Ghost will attack the traitorous accomplice that fled the scene, leaving him to get away by himself. Rhyme disagrees and puts all his energy into finding the immigrants, who have gone into hiding. The accomplice is later discovered, apparently tortured with knives, his eyelids cut out. Dead. Sonny gains respect from Rhyme.

Rhyme and Sachs track down one of the families in hiding, the 'Wu's', who have gone into hiding in a safehouse provided by a local gang. However the Ghost has also hunted them down, and is heading to kill them. He turns onto the street, and a shot fires out. It is Alan Coe, an INS agent with a personal vendetta against the Ghost. He is not allowed to continue the investigation because of this, as it results in the Ghost escaping. However, the Wu's and John Sung are both in safehouses leaving only the 'Chang' family still in hiding.

Here we see the Changs, with the father, Sam Chang, planning to masquerade as a traitor to the family who is selling their hideout to the Ghost, and kill him. He knows this may well end in his death.He confides in his wife and his father, and is preparing to leave. His father asks him for a last drink together and prepares tea. The tea is drugged, and Sam Chang's father takes the gun and leaves to meet the Ghost. He fails to kill the Ghost, and kills himself with an overdose of morphine after running out of ammo.

Meanwhile, Sonny Li is following his less conventional methods of police work, and he actually tracks down the Ghost and finds who he is. However he confronts him without the others, and is killed before he has a chance to tell Rhyme. However, he deliberately spreads some trace evidence at the scene to lead Rhyme onto the right person. At this point the reader knows who the Ghost is, but Rhyme doesn't.

Using the evidence from Chang's killing, and Sonny's killing, Rhyme deduces where the Changs are hiding out. He sends Sachs, Coe and John Sung (as a translator) to take them into detention and government safehouses. During the journey there, Rhyme phones Sachs and tells her who the Ghost is. She pulls over and pulls the gun on Coe, and arrests him, claiming to have uncovered evidence that he is the Ghost's police contact. He is taken away. She and Sung continue to the Changs flat. They get inside and Sachs spins round and trains her weapon on Sung, a SPECTAC team swoop in and apprehend Sung and he is revealed to be the Ghost. Arresting Coe was a cunning move to trick Sung into thinking they thought they had captured the real Ghost. It is later revealed that the Ghost had shot Sung on the beach, and stolen his personal affects, then shot himself and jumped in the sea.

They later hear of the intention to release the Ghost back to China, where he will supposedly be tried. Rhyme and Sachs are horrified and attempt to stop it. They discover something and race to the airport. They confront the Ghost and his two INS guards coming up to the airport gate. They reveal that through their research, they have discovered a high level of corruption in the INS, and this leads to the Ghost being tried in America and several high level security personnel taking 'early retirement'.

The novel ends with Rhyme revealing that he will not be undergoing the surgery described in the previous book, which is a huge relief to Sachs, his earlier conversation with Li having inspired him to consider that he is a better detective in his current state due to his ability to focus on purely intellectual matters. Finally Sachs oversees the adoption of the baby whose mother was killed aboard the ship, by the Changs, who have always wanted a daughter. The families are awarded asylum.