The Emerald Buddha Conspiracy

Rating:
Summary: Buddha's Mystery Unraveled
Review: A young woman half-American and half-French, spending the summer in the palace in Bangkok, Thailand with her photographer father didn't waste any time finding a mystery. Lisette Paul came upon the disappearance of the Emerald Buddha very suddenly. With the help of a few new found friends and bustling city, Lisette figures out the Buddha's puzzling disappearance. I liked this book a lot. It was very descriptive. I felt like I was there and could feel and see everything. It also included a lot of truth and real facts about the palace. It combined facts, fiction and mystery all together. Just when you think it's all over, it gets even more intense.
Compared to other books, I like this one a lot more than even science fiction, which few books I've read even close to being like this were. On a scale of 1-10 stars, I give this book 8 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Allows the reader to travel to southeast Asia
Review: The year is 1986. The Emerald Buddha, the most sacred religious symbol of the Thai people, has been stolen and replaced with a copy in an attempt to blackmail the government.

Peter Froste, formerly with U.S. Military Intelligence in Vietnam, and now a Dallas art dealer specializing in fine arts from Asia, is persuaded to return to Thailand to help recover the statue by his former boss, Phillip Rollings, head of CIA operations in Thailand. Froste initially refuses to become involved until he learns that his former fiance, whom he believed was killed in a helicopter crash ten years ago, is alive, involved in the theft, and a special military agent for Vietnam. With mixed emotions Froste arrives in Bangkok,Thailand hoping not only to recover the Buddha but also to contact his former lover, Francine Lemercinnier aka Colonel Vu Thuong Chu.

I really enjoyed this book . It is well written, easy to read, and a good story. The characters are well developed and the author does a wonderful job of conveying their emotions. The descriptions of the various locations are wonderful. I felt like I had traveled to the temples of Thailand and the opium fields in the mountains. I will look forward to traveling with Benjamin Izell again in his next novel.