A cargo ship holding a bunch of Chinese illegal immigrants is on its journey to New York where they will be working for riches and a better life. Each family has payed a hefty sum of money to be smuggled by a notorious criminal “snakehead” (refugee smuggler), also known to others as “the Ghost”. The New York Police Department know about this smuggle and is ready to intercept them until things got horrible.
Making sure the illegal immigrants were in the container, his right hand man locked them in making sure they couldn’t get out.A Satchel of C4 is placed at the hull of the ship, powerful enough to create a hole in the ship but not enough to blow the whole thing up and also to give enough time for “the Ghost” to get his money and equipment and also to get himself on a life boat and get away from the pull and the crime scene. The C4 goes off and the ship starts sinking right off the coast of Long Beach, the clock starts clicking. Luckily for some of the illegal immigrants they managed to escape, but after escaping they encounter “the Ghost” scouting around shooting survivors, like the ship crew, he sees the survivors and the chase begins.
The survivors swim for the shore of Long Beach, and “the Ghost” starts for the survivors as well, following them and trying to kill them. In the events they get on the beach and get away by stealing a van, they head for the highway to China Town. The police arrive at the beach and find a wounded survivor and a few corpses; “the Ghost” is nowhere to be found. The survivors seek refuge in China Town where they are tracked by police as well as “the Ghost” (because he doesn’t leave survivors). His right hand man goes to the police and reveals that he works under “the Ghost” but he is a Chinese agent trying to monitor his movements.He is then settled to work with both agents Amelia Sachs and Lincoln Rhyme who watched the disaster unfold.
They start tracking the survivors as they know if they find the survivors they find the man behind all this “the Ghost”, soon after they find that they have to find them first or the survivors will be killed by “the Ghost”. So they start to interrogate the wounded survivor, also a refugee. This wounded refugee is settled in a house and is working with the police to find the survivors and “the Ghost”, he is also getting the attention of the police with medical help and more.Through a few certain events the refugee’s are located, upon arriving the police go in to have a look but see two men holding the refugee’s hostage, the police rush in and kill them both, no refugee’s were harmed, then outside car tyres start screeching and a car gets away. With that the refugees are in custody. One day the Chinese agent walks along the streets and notices a familiar face, “the Ghost”, he follows him in a alley and they start a fight, the Chinse agent is killed, but he has hidden some evidence with him on who is “the Ghost”.
After discovering the Chinese agents’ body, they find the evidence on linking who is “the Ghost”. They arrest the wounded refugee who was found on Long Beach, he is actually “the Ghost”, shooting himself making him look like the refugee escaping from ghost and sticking close to the cops so he can get information on the refugee’s. After being arrested the government decides to send him back to China for Investigation, later Lincoln Rhyme figures that the two countries governments are working on this together, the United States government allowing a massacre on the coast of long beach for a better relationship between China.Comment: I read this book and finished it in 3 weeks, short and fast for someone like me who doesn’t like to read. But I found this book very interesting; I usually read mystery books with crimes and investigation because I like searching into the unknown. I found this book very interesting because it was a crime and investigation novel, not only that.
It opened up more Chinese knowledge for me. I learnt a bit more about Chinese traditions and their beliefs and through this book I could say that it was funny and suspending at the same time.I loved the plot as well; especially the part here in the end we find out that the survivor who got shot in the chest was actually the whole mastermind behind the crime was not foreseeable. It came totally out of the blue for me, it wasn’t one of those read the beginning of the book and then you could guess the rest of the story type, it kept me guessing the whole way through the story.
So I really enjoyed this book. But the worst part about it was the ending, where the United States government allowed this to happen secretly in its waters so that it could have a better relationship with China is just absurd, they need a better ending.
