The Stone CouncilAfter Blood red Rivers and Flight of the Storks, Jean Christophe Grange breaks through the barriers of the traditional thriller. As a child Diane Thiberge was the victim of an assault. Now aged 30, an ethnologist specialising in the study of predatory animals, and a woman adept in the martial arts, she believes she has at last found a meaning and purpose to her life when she decides to adopt a five year old Thai boy, Liu San, whom she christens

But the date of his death is surprising

is on the run

Now even the police had closed the case

Based on real events

the newly named Imrhien must survive a wilderness of endless danger

The Theory of Evolution was the greatest scientific concept of its age

Richard 'Lord' Grant - my father - who managed to destroy his own career

Unflinching in its vision of suffering and generous in its portrayal of the spirit of care

The lofty city of Sanctaphrax--built on a giant rock

Elizabeth Costello is an Australian writer of international renown

during the 1960s and early 1970s

unearthing secrets buried too deep for anyone else to find