The Chinese Alchemist (Lara McClintoch Archeological Mystery, #11) by Lyn Hamilton

The Chinese Alchemist (Lara McClintoch Archeological Mystery, #11) Reviews

• 
  Karol

  Oh my gosh - I totally loved this book, the last one that the author published. Description of Chinese culture was fascinating, as was the mystery itself. Knowing that this was the last book the author published before dying of cancer 2 years later, the last sentence of the book made me cry.
  
  Overall, I loved this series. It seems like the writing got better as the series progressed which is sometimes not the case - characters can get stale and the writer falls into a "tried and true" repetitious mode. That didn't happen here. An entertaining series from beginning to end.
  
  
• 
  Terri Lynn

  I had a lot of fun reading THE CHINESE ALCHEMIST as I have with most of the other books in the series. In this one, Lara travels to China to try to get hold of a mysterious silver box (1 in a set of 3) to return to the Chinese government for her deceased friend Dorothy who fled with her mother at the time the communists took over China in the 1940's. Dorothy, however, had many secrets and a hidden agenda and poor Lara almost dies because of it. As dead bodies turn up and Lara desperately seeks the truth, we learn a lot about the history of the country, its culture, and its art. One of my favorite parts of the book is the way the chapters begin with the bittersweet story of the original owner of the silver boxes, a concubine from the T'ang Dynasty named Lingfei who was sold by her father as a concubine written by her younger brother who was also sold to the emperor as a eunuch (ouch!) . They were reunited in the palace though they never acknowledged openly their relationship and in the end, it was he who honored her with a tomb after she was murdered and missed her to his dying day. This was so heartbreaking to me. I recommend this series.
• 
  Roxy

  A good book overall, but the plot became too confusing to follow, and rambled near the end. It trook almost ten pages at the end of the book to unravel the whole story, by which point I had almost lost interest. However, i don't read mysteries a lot, so this could explain my impatience.
• 
  Deborah Gebhardt

  I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway. This was my introduction to Lyn Hamilton and her Lara McClintoch Archeological Mysteries. This was a fast fun read, presuming Lyn Hamilton researched her facts, it gave some interesting information without overwhelming the story or making it boring.
  Lara McClintoch, a Toronto antiques dealer, is doing a paid favor for a friend, having no idea the trouble she's walking into. The favor includes a trip to China, where Lara hasn't been for over 20 years and she's hampered by her inability to speak the language.
  The more time she spends, the more dangerous it is and murder is part of the program.
  The prologue and the chapters include the life of Wu Yuan and his interactions with Lingfei. concubine and alchemist for the emperor.
• 
  Donna Bresnak

  this is the most interesting, spellbinding book I have had the pleasure of reading in a long time. I received this copy for free from goodreads. I highly recommend it. the story line was suspenseful and I couldn't put it down.
• 
  Aprilleigh

  You would think, by now, that Lara would be a little less trusting of people who make special requests and seem to not be telling her everything. As usual, this client's secrets nearly got Lara killed, and it got her mixed up with some very dangerous people.
  
  She is asked to purchase one of a set of three Chinese nesting boxes, but before she can do so it's stolen right in front of her. When the box shows up in China, her deceased friend's husband asks her to try once again, even though the antiquities laws will not allow the box to leave China, no matter who purchases it. Apparently, the goal is to reunite the set and gift it to the Chinese government to keep it out of the hands of private collectors who would squirrel it away from public eyes.
  
  Needless to say, there's a lot more going on than Lara initially realizes, but she's smart, if a little foolish, and starts to put the pieces together.
  
  The backstory about the boxes and their original owner is bittersweet, and will stay with you for a long time.
• 
  Nancy

  This book had all the elements that should have added up to a fun read: experienced mystery author; antique dealer as protagonist; armchair travel to China and intrigue in the auction world. What on earth happened?
  
  My biggest issue with the book was that the antique dealer/sleuth's investigations seemed totally out of line. I never mind Miss Marple poking her nose in her neighbors' business, but somehow Lara McClintoch didn't ring true to me.
  
  And, as other reviewers have noted, there are big patches of "learning material" stuffed in the book in a rather awkward manner. I like to learn about a culture, or an object, seamlessly and that was not the case here.
  
  I may give this series one more try because the concept is interesting to me (NYT calls them archaeological mysteries) but this book was not a promising start for me.
• 
  Snap

  The Chinese Alchemist: An Archaeological Mystery is the last in the series featuring antiques dealer Lara McClintoch. Lara is asked by her friend and former curator of Asian Art at the local museum, Dorothy Matthews, to purchase a silver box from the eighth century T'ang dynasty at a New York auction. Etched with part of an alchemical formula for immortality, the extremely rare box is suddenly withdrawn by the seller. The same box is put up for sale in Beijing a few months later and Lara is off to Beijing. There's robbery, murder and wonderful descriptions of the Forbidden Palace, the hutongs and markets.
  
  Lara McClintich died on September 10, 2009 from cancer at the age of 65. I will miss her books.
• 
  Anna

  Armchair travel to China as a Canadian tourist...
  The protagonist is a Canadian antique dealer who goes on an antique Chinese box hunt to New York and then to China. I hoped the 'archeological mystery' should would be more mouth-watering, but it had a very touristy image of China (with not fully fitting details where it tried to educate about history etc). The protagonist was a bit flat in character, but maybe she develops later in the series to a more interesting and less of a Nancy Drew/Miss Marple type predictable one to have more character and also more bad sides.
  There were a few interesting characters though, I enjoyed the annoying and improbable Burton Haldimand.
• 
  Chenoa

  I found out after starting the book that it was the 11th of the series. I may have missed some subtleties or figured out the mystery sooner having read the other books but I never felt like I was missing something. it was an excellent story around an artifact and how it effected peoples lives in the past and present. I enjoyed the pace of the book even though I found that the main actor had to make some big leaps in logic to get to the final conclusion.
  
  Overall I found the book an enjoyable read.
• 
  Mickey Hoffman

  I kept wondering as I read if this book is set in the same China that I've been to. I speak Chinese and know something of the culture and the book didn't ring true to me. The plot isn't that great either. I found the protagonist the most annoying part of the book. I just didn't like her. Perhaps she wasn't described enough, or maybe I just didn't care if she or her friends got the mystery solved or not.
• 
  Margaret Joyce

  A fast, fun read, this story, like The Orkney Scrolls-another of Hamilton's archaeological mysteries-weaves an ancient tale through the plot line of a modern murder mystery, and whirls the protagonist, Lara McClintoch,a Toronto antiques dealer turned detective, off-in this case,to China. Lara's sleuthing in and around Beijing invites the reader to not only wonder 'whodunit,' but also to witness through Lara's eyes, modern China and to reflect on its history. An interesting read!
• 
  Pam

  This is a very good author of light mystery novels. Okay, people die, so they're not TOO light, but they are easy to read & have an attractive heroine, who is Canadian! And globe-hops to interesting places which are well described.
• 
  Grey853

  I love reading mysteries about antique dealers. I love learning about the history. However, a writer can go a little overboard with too much detail sometimes and I think Hamilton did that here. Plus, her main character is sometimes a little hard to take.
• 
  Jan

  Great series, good suspense and I usually don't figure it out till the end.
• 
  Deena

  The last nail in the coffin for this series. I couldn't even finish it.
• 
  Bcoghill Coghill

  I do enjoy this series.
• 
  Wan Ni

  It's a wild-goose-chase novel meets Orientalism. Much of the devices are gratuitous, the plot is weak and the book is not compelling.
• 
  Helen

  Felt very formulaic, action not very engaging
• 
  Pat

  Lara McClintoch
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  Doris Pearson

  good mystery with a bit of history thrown in. I like that.