Zen holds the fort while the previous chief is recovering from a bullet wound; he shot himself in the foot while cleaning his service revolver.

The locals resent him, his colleagues resent him, he doesn’t speak the local dialect, the food is unpalatable and he misses his wife. In short, Zen is miserable. In doesn’t help that soon after his arrival an American goes missing, a strange ritual in a mountain village produces mute witnesses and low flying helicopters harass area residents. No one will tell Zen anything about anyone.

When the missing American’s son arrives he soon finds out that much of what he thought he knew of his father was a lie. Much of the area history is buried in falsehoods and obfuscations and whenever one of the prominent families proclaims something it is accepted as Truth. Toss in a clueless American gaming millionaire and his born-again bimbo wife, a wheeling dealing Vietnamese film agent and a decades old vendetta and you have the making of veritable minestrone.

An added ingredient is the legend of buried treasure and Zen has his plate full although of virtually indigestible foods. Enough culinary metaphors - Zen is back again! What a shame this is the last of his adventures. He has survived car bombs, certain death from being pushed off scaffolding, poisoned wine and a knife attack and now he rests in peace with his creator.

--Jane Davis