I am a huge fan of Eliot Pattison; he has written some of my favorite books, and this one joins that list. While his Inspector Shan Tao Yun series is more contemporary, this one is set during the French and Indian War in colonial America. You might not think that one can write modern Tibet and Colonial America with the same degree of detail and character, but Pattison does. This is ostensibly a mystery, but as with the Shan novels, this protagonist, Duncan McCullum, solves not just a murder, but begins the process of unraveling the mystery of his own heart. Highly recommended!