The Lord of Death — Eliot Pattison

Shan Tao Yun is an exiled Chinese national, a former Beijing investigator, on parole from the Tibetan gulag to which he had been consigned. He is leading a mule bearing a corpse over the slopes of Chomolungma -- Everest -- at the request of a local wisewoman, when he comes upon a traffic accident. In the midst of it, two women have been shot: the Chinese Minister of Tourism and a blonde Westerner. Shan must find the killer, for his reward will be the life of his imprisoned son.