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Ross Lamos Mystery #1
Yu: A Ross Lamos Mystery
A Ross Lamos Karmic Mystery
Forbidden love, the Imperial Court of the Han Dynasty,jades worth millions on the black market ... Ross Lamos, 21stCentury Karmic Detective, knows that somehow, the history of the three jades is his as well. Yü, the Stone of Heaven, jade art born from the genius of ancient China. Lamos has built his career dealing Asian art and antiquities by hiding his very useful psychic Touch. When he holds the jades, the yü will reveal an extraordinary history. Lamos will risk everything to protect the jades, and finally remember his role in a love story that changed the course of a Dynasty ... the love between an extraordinary Concubine and a Prince, the son of her Emperor, and the Poet caught between them all ... a story hidden for two thousand years in three pieces of yü. Yü is the award winning first novel by Joy Shayne Laughter and begins the Ross Lamos mystery series.
Forbidden love, the Imperial Court of the Han Dynasty,jades worth millions on the black market ... Ross Lamos, 21stCentury Karmic Detective, knows that somehow, the history of the three jades is his as well. Yü, the Stone of Heaven, jade art born from the genius of ancient China. Lamos has built his career dealing Asian art and antiquities by hiding his very useful psychic Touch. When he holds the jades, the yü will reveal an extraordinary history. Lamos will risk everything to protect the jades, and finally remember his role in a love story that changed the course of a Dynasty ... the love between an extraordinary Concubine and a Prince, the son of her Emperor, and the Poet caught between them all ... a story hidden for two thousand years in three pieces of yü. Yü is the award winning first novel by Joy Shayne Laughter and begins the Ross Lamos mystery series.
- GenresMystery
235 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 22, 2010
1 person is currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Joy Shayne Laughter
1 book2 followersFourth-generation Hoosier, but in love with the whole world, and trying to see as much of it as possible; just found a small independent publisher for my first novel; two and a half decades as a freelance journalist and essayist; fifteen years learning screenwriting before realizing it was about the prose all along.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
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May 28, 2022DNF
September 13, 2012
Literary reincarnation novel a must-read for Buddhist mystery fans
(Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars) Read "Yü" to explore how passion and murder can transcend centuries as Ross Lamos uses his powerful Touch to unfurl the stories of the prince, the emperor, and the concubine bound within three jade objects. Read "Yü" for the haiku-like perfection of the jade stories themselves. Read "Yü" for the vibrant historical details, the taut mystery, the secret romance. But if you're a fan of spiritual fiction, read it you must. Joy Shane Laughter (rhymes with "daughter") has penned one of the smartest, most engaging literary mysteries I've read in a long time.
Spiritual/metaphysical content: High. Ross possesses psychometry--the ability to sense information about an object and the people associated with it. When he touches the jade pieces, he falls headlong into visions from the Imperial Palace of the Han Dynasty. The breathtaking jade stories build upon spiritual principles from that time, primarily Taoist writings by Chuang Tzu. One of the most moving sections vividly describes an exercise that people assume enhances combat skills. "What a misunderstanding," says the concubine who practices the art. "The exercise is an increase in lightness and joy . . . you expand your welcome and embrace all of life . . . It is teasing play, where two minds learn to meet, speak together in silence, and then have a witty debate in movement." It is through this meditative practice that the concubine first engages with the prince as he secretly watches her practice. Laughter does a splendid job of demonstrating how past traumas set the stage for our current lives, and she employs the Buddhist Middle Way to help her characters understand and work through their present karma.
My take: This multi-dimensional literary mystery brilliantly interweaves reincarnation stories into a contemporary mystery. By writing the stories in first person, ancient events seem immediate and compelling, almost more so than the present-day mystery that Ross unravels. The story culminates with a cunning identity twist that is totally unexpected, and totally satisfying.
The historical details from the Han Dynasty are not decorative fabric draped about the story, as is the case in many reincarnation novels, but essential to the action. For instance, the concubine communicates with her lover across an imperial court rife with spies, secret alliances, and conspiracies using a secret language of fans. But nothing stays secret for long within the claustrophobic walls of the Imperial Palace.
Laughter's jade stories burst at the seams with elegant, concise, and yet restrained prose that pierces the true nature of each character. She evokes sympathy for a villain with a single, well-crafted line: "He carries so many more secrets than I. We both need so much comfort. " Spare and beautiful, each word of the many jade stories performs double and even triple duty--prose haiku. Even the act of eating in public becomes an intimate, sensual act filled with tension and danger, more highly charged--and more thrilling to the reader--than the most explicit passages of a romance novel.
The simplicity of the jade stories resonates in bold contrast to her full-bodied descriptions of our contemporary world, details that pull you into a deeper understanding of what it is like to experience the Touch. The jade stories quilt together layers of tension, culminating in a crescendo that, unfortunately, the real-time story can't quite match. The jade stories so overpower the actual mystery that one is left wanting more than the climax can deliver.
Cheers to Joy Shane Laughter for this haunting, beautifully researched Buddhist detective novel. I cannot wait to read the next book in the Ross Lamos series.
For more reviews of spiritual/metaphysical novels, see Fiction For A New Age.
(Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars) Read "Yü" to explore how passion and murder can transcend centuries as Ross Lamos uses his powerful Touch to unfurl the stories of the prince, the emperor, and the concubine bound within three jade objects. Read "Yü" for the haiku-like perfection of the jade stories themselves. Read "Yü" for the vibrant historical details, the taut mystery, the secret romance. But if you're a fan of spiritual fiction, read it you must. Joy Shane Laughter (rhymes with "daughter") has penned one of the smartest, most engaging literary mysteries I've read in a long time.
Spiritual/metaphysical content: High. Ross possesses psychometry--the ability to sense information about an object and the people associated with it. When he touches the jade pieces, he falls headlong into visions from the Imperial Palace of the Han Dynasty. The breathtaking jade stories build upon spiritual principles from that time, primarily Taoist writings by Chuang Tzu. One of the most moving sections vividly describes an exercise that people assume enhances combat skills. "What a misunderstanding," says the concubine who practices the art. "The exercise is an increase in lightness and joy . . . you expand your welcome and embrace all of life . . . It is teasing play, where two minds learn to meet, speak together in silence, and then have a witty debate in movement." It is through this meditative practice that the concubine first engages with the prince as he secretly watches her practice. Laughter does a splendid job of demonstrating how past traumas set the stage for our current lives, and she employs the Buddhist Middle Way to help her characters understand and work through their present karma.
My take: This multi-dimensional literary mystery brilliantly interweaves reincarnation stories into a contemporary mystery. By writing the stories in first person, ancient events seem immediate and compelling, almost more so than the present-day mystery that Ross unravels. The story culminates with a cunning identity twist that is totally unexpected, and totally satisfying.
The historical details from the Han Dynasty are not decorative fabric draped about the story, as is the case in many reincarnation novels, but essential to the action. For instance, the concubine communicates with her lover across an imperial court rife with spies, secret alliances, and conspiracies using a secret language of fans. But nothing stays secret for long within the claustrophobic walls of the Imperial Palace.
Laughter's jade stories burst at the seams with elegant, concise, and yet restrained prose that pierces the true nature of each character. She evokes sympathy for a villain with a single, well-crafted line: "He carries so many more secrets than I. We both need so much comfort. " Spare and beautiful, each word of the many jade stories performs double and even triple duty--prose haiku. Even the act of eating in public becomes an intimate, sensual act filled with tension and danger, more highly charged--and more thrilling to the reader--than the most explicit passages of a romance novel.
The simplicity of the jade stories resonates in bold contrast to her full-bodied descriptions of our contemporary world, details that pull you into a deeper understanding of what it is like to experience the Touch. The jade stories quilt together layers of tension, culminating in a crescendo that, unfortunately, the real-time story can't quite match. The jade stories so overpower the actual mystery that one is left wanting more than the climax can deliver.
Cheers to Joy Shane Laughter for this haunting, beautifully researched Buddhist detective novel. I cannot wait to read the next book in the Ross Lamos series.
For more reviews of spiritual/metaphysical novels, see Fiction For A New Age.
March 17, 2011
Ross Lamos has built a successful career in dealing with Asian art and antiquities. His specialty is jade carvings, and his astonishing gift is his psychic touch, that is, whenever he holds jade, the stone’s yu (its internal chi power) reveals its history to Lamos. He sees visions of what the stones have witnessed.
The story begins when a mysterious woman enters the antique shop where Lamos works, asking him to appraise three carved jade stones. The stones are all from the same period, Han Dynasty, and worth millions on the black market. Lamos has never worked with such exquisitely crafted carvings before. They are the work of a master craftsman. But more than the stones’ value, Lamos is intrigued by their history.
One by one, he holds the stones, and they tell three connecting stories of a forbidden love in China’s Imperial Court during the Han Dynasty. Within this unfolding tale, Lamos comes to realize that both he and this mysterious woman, in their former lives, played a part in this unfolding drama.
Each stone presents a piece of the puzzle that tells of a love between a prince and his father’s concubine, and the poet caught up in the middle of a deadly game of intrigue. But which former life did Lamos play? He will do anything to find out.
This story is so smart and so polished that I found it nearly impossible to believe that it is Joy Shayne Laughter’s debut novel. It is one of the most delightful books I’ve read in several years. I truly loved every scene, every page, every character.
Each character is richly drawn and complex, as are the relationships between the characters, both in contemporary times and ancient past. Interlaced with the three views of the past, are Lamos’s own tribulations with his career and gay love life. The author delicately weaves the past and present stories together, enticing the reader into this mystery, giving only glimpses of the whole, until it all comes together in a shocking and unpredictable ending. It left me stunned.
Joy Shayne Laughter has, with this one novel, risen to the top of my favorite authors list. Her delectable prose carries the reader along in an enchanting dream. She has demonstrated the power to captivate me with wonderfully unique characters, effortlessly drawing me into their drama, and then crushing my senses with an overwhelming love story.
My only complaint with this novel is that I have to wait until the author’s next release in order to enjoy more of her superb talent. For anyone who relishes romance novels or mysteries, this is a must read. Brava!!!
The story begins when a mysterious woman enters the antique shop where Lamos works, asking him to appraise three carved jade stones. The stones are all from the same period, Han Dynasty, and worth millions on the black market. Lamos has never worked with such exquisitely crafted carvings before. They are the work of a master craftsman. But more than the stones’ value, Lamos is intrigued by their history.
One by one, he holds the stones, and they tell three connecting stories of a forbidden love in China’s Imperial Court during the Han Dynasty. Within this unfolding tale, Lamos comes to realize that both he and this mysterious woman, in their former lives, played a part in this unfolding drama.
Each stone presents a piece of the puzzle that tells of a love between a prince and his father’s concubine, and the poet caught up in the middle of a deadly game of intrigue. But which former life did Lamos play? He will do anything to find out.
This story is so smart and so polished that I found it nearly impossible to believe that it is Joy Shayne Laughter’s debut novel. It is one of the most delightful books I’ve read in several years. I truly loved every scene, every page, every character.
Each character is richly drawn and complex, as are the relationships between the characters, both in contemporary times and ancient past. Interlaced with the three views of the past, are Lamos’s own tribulations with his career and gay love life. The author delicately weaves the past and present stories together, enticing the reader into this mystery, giving only glimpses of the whole, until it all comes together in a shocking and unpredictable ending. It left me stunned.
Joy Shayne Laughter has, with this one novel, risen to the top of my favorite authors list. Her delectable prose carries the reader along in an enchanting dream. She has demonstrated the power to captivate me with wonderfully unique characters, effortlessly drawing me into their drama, and then crushing my senses with an overwhelming love story.
My only complaint with this novel is that I have to wait until the author’s next release in order to enjoy more of her superb talent. For anyone who relishes romance novels or mysteries, this is a must read. Brava!!!
May 8, 2012
This is not your typical mystery; it doesn't have a typical mystery structure. It's more of a past-meets-present kind of novel in which the main character must use special powers to investigate historical artifacts and dig out a hidden truth. More like Possession by A.S. Byatt than Agatha Christie.
Apprentice antiquties dealer Ross Lamos has the touch - he can pick up the stories of any object he handles, if it has a story to tell. Three ancient Chinese jades come to him through a mysterious woman who seems to know his secret: the touch of the first nearly knocks him unconscious with the flood of memories from Han-era China - of murder.
You could just as easily say that the mystery here is in identity - due to reincarnation, the players in the past histories have gathered again, and it's Ross's job to name them all, and to give them the information they need to move on through their lives.
It's a pretty cool premise, and it's pulled off pretty well. The past stories are more interesting than the present ones - but I think that's pretty much to be expected in this kind of thing; writers of historical fiction seem to think history's more interesting. But the story in the present isn't flat or dull by any means.
Apprentice antiquties dealer Ross Lamos has the touch - he can pick up the stories of any object he handles, if it has a story to tell. Three ancient Chinese jades come to him through a mysterious woman who seems to know his secret: the touch of the first nearly knocks him unconscious with the flood of memories from Han-era China - of murder.
You could just as easily say that the mystery here is in identity - due to reincarnation, the players in the past histories have gathered again, and it's Ross's job to name them all, and to give them the information they need to move on through their lives.
It's a pretty cool premise, and it's pulled off pretty well. The past stories are more interesting than the present ones - but I think that's pretty much to be expected in this kind of thing; writers of historical fiction seem to think history's more interesting. But the story in the present isn't flat or dull by any means.
August 31, 2016
Yu is a fabulous mixture of current mystery (with a bit of a noir edge), historical mystery (about ancient jades), and past lives weaving current and past characters together. The writing is superb. The characters are well-drawn and intriguing, and the interplay between ancient past and present is compelling.
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February 11, 2012This was a fun read. Which voice is speaking? What era am I in? There was plenty to keep my busy little mind occupied. This was not the predictable mystery that I have solved by the time the characters are introduced. I'll definitely watch for more my Joy Shayne Laughter.
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