Grave Imports
by Eric Stone
Bleak House Books, HK$120
When former journalist Eric Stone lived in Hong Kong in the mid-1990s he had an art shop in Central make a stand for a sculpture. The simple request led to a tour of a warehouse filled with stolen Cambodian artefacts. Several years later, in Bangkok, he inquired at River City whether he could buy any apsaras (pneumatic dancing girls carved into stone). One he was shown had been chipped from a Cambodian frieze. These incidents propel Grave Imports, which centres on the trade in stolen treasures, and sees the return of Ray Sharp. In the second of the series our protagonist has swapped journalism for a corporate investigations job. Checking a Chinese art supplies store for a client planning to invest in the company, he embarks on a dangerous trail of smuggled antiquities that takes him from Hong Kong to the mainland, Thailand and Cambodia. Stone has obviously done his research, inserting factoids into a fast-moving narrative that hints at his job as a journalist. The problem is that the novel seems aimed at an audience unfamiliar with these parts; sometimes Stone offers too much explanation. Still, Grave Imports is a rollicking work that may persuade readers to find out more about the treasures they collect.
