From Publishers Weekly
Packed with authentic detail, though at times overly theatrical in its rhetoric, this cautionary debut thriller is by the BBC's China correspondent, an expert on Asian affairs (Dragonstrike: The Millennium War). The hero is Scottish-born Mike McKillop, once a respected Hong Kong cop and now a bureaucratic figurehead police superintendent, who is wallowing in alcoholic self-pity. He has been living alone since his Chinese-born wife took their two children and disappeared into the Chinese mainland; at work, his boss is evil Li Tuo, who, 13 years ago, murdered McKillop's best friend. In Beijing for an international conference on corruption, McKillop receives a call from Clem Watkins, a CIA pal he hasn't seen since the night his friend was slain. Watkins warns him that there is something amiss at Heshui, a secret missile base near the Korean border. McKillop meets with Watkins; immediately afterward, the agent is nearly leveled by a burst of gunfire. Soon after, Scott Carter, a young CIA operative, is murdered in Hong Kong while making routine contact with a Korean agent. Promised a reunion with his wife, McKillop's defenses drop and he lets himself be convinced that Ling Chen, Carter's Yale-educated Chinese lover, is the killer. But when he discovers beyond a doubt that Ling has been set up, he finds himself rescuing her and fleeing for his life. At times the plot is slowed by needless rambling and introduction of gratuitous characters, but the gradual unveiling of a diabolical secret complex at Heshui keeps suspense levels high. (Dec.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
China viewed darkly is the grim backdrop for a disturbing thriller. The year is 2007, and Supt. Mike McKillip, Hong Kong policeman, has been a nonplayer since the handover. Though little more than political window-dressing, he's stayed on in the hope of a reconciliation with his unenthusiastic Chinese wife and their two children. Thoroughly brainwashed, they view him now as just another arrogant Westerner, blind to the beauty and intricacy of their culture, and hence an enemy. But the status quo is suddenly upended when Mike gets a call from CIA agent Clem Watkins, an old friend and colleague. Clem's on the run. All sorts of peoplemostly, though not exclusively, Chinesewant to kill him for reasons having to do with certain enigmatic goings-on at remote Heshui, a place Mike knows well. Or so he thought. Years earlier, Mike and Clem were part of a clandestine operation aimed at sniffing out Heshui's secrets. Now, Clem insists, those secrets are both uglier and more dangerous than eversecrets Li Tuo, head of China's internal police, would cheerfully murder to keep hidden. But then Li Tuo is ever the cheerful murderer. His targets include Clem, of course; Mike, too, before long; a variety of more or less innocent Westerners; Ling Chen, a brave and resourceful young female patriot; the president of China; and any number of lesser fry. From Hong Kong (``where everyone sleeps with everyone and everybody watches everybody''), the scene shifts to Beijing, Shanghai, Washington, and finally Heshui, where the battle between good and evil is joined and (temporarily) resolved. Veteran journalist and China watcher Hawksley (Dragonstrike, 1999) gets it right in his first try at fictional intrigue: likable heroes, a ferocious villain, and the scariest milieu since the Cold War washed out. --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
