Hungry Ghost [Paperback]

Stephen Leather (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 1996

In this story an ex-SAS man is sent to Hong Kong by MI5 to kill Simon Ng, a Chinese mafia leader and a freelance agent for several governments. When he disappears, Ng's brother-in-law Patrick Dugan, a Hong Kong policeman, becomes caught in the middle of international spy intrigue.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Stephen Leather should be nestling in your bookshelves alongside Frederick Forsyth and Jack Higgins' -- Daily Mail 'The sort of book that could easily take up a complete weekend - and be time really well spent ... A story that's as topical as today's headlines' -- Bolton Evening News 'Very complicated. Fun' -- Daily Telegraph --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Stephen Leather was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full-time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. You can find out more from his website www.stephenleather.com. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Coronet; First Thus edition (June 6, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340672242
• ISBN-13: 978-0340672242
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,827,478 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Leather was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Before that, he was employed as a biochemist for ICI, shovelled limestone in a quarry, worked as a baker, a petrol pump attendant, a barman, and worked for the Inland Revenue. He began writing full time in 1992. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London's Burning, The Knock and the BBC's Murder in Mind series. You can find out more from his website, www.stephenleather.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect reading for multiple crossings on the Star Ferry, October 12, 2005

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hungry Ghost (Paperback)

The milieu of HUNGARY GHOST is Hong Kong during the Festival of the Hungary Ghosts, during which time souls of the dead are released from Hell and must be ritually propitiated before they can wreak havoc among the living. Sort of like Halloween without the candy.

Here, the transfer of the Crown Colony to Red China is only a few years away. A top executive in the London HQ of the Secret Intelligence Service unilaterally reactivates Geoff Howells, a former MI6 assassin previously forced into retirement after he began enjoying his work just a little too much. Geoff's mission - to kill Simon Ng, the head of a powerful Hong Kong triad, who's understood to be threatening the Beijing mandarins with the blowing of bloody big hole in the containment dome of a nuclear reactor located six miles upwind of the colony unless Hong Kong's handover is delayed fifty years, an unacceptable scenario to the Brits, who just want to exit gracefully ASAP. To bring Simon out from behind his protective walls and bodyguards, Howells kidnaps Sophie, Ng's daughter by his beautiful English wife, Jill.

The basic elements of HUNGRY GHOST promise a lean and mean thriller. While it proves to be gratifyingly mean, it's less of the former through the introduction of a superfluity of characters: Pat Dugan, a Senior Inspector in the Commercial Crime Unit of the Hong Kong Police Department as well as Jill's brother, Simon Ng's father and brother, two CIA operatives, one very cute female assassin working for the People's Republic, and a golden-hearted bar girl named Amy. While all these extra players add complexity and interest, I suggest the novel would have been even better had it come down to a contest between Jill and/or Sophie and Geoff without all the other distractions. Indeed, author Stephen Leather has created strong-willed heroines to excellent effect in two other of his potboilers, THE BOMBMAKER and THE STRETCH, both of which transcend this volume in suspense and clever plotting and got 5 stars from me.

Mind you, HUNGRY GHOST's 462 paper-backed pages provided better than average entertainment on a 4-hour rail ride from Bridgeport, CT to Baltimore, and a 5-hour flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles, when I wasn't otherwise dozing. And if, like me, you've been lucky enough to visit Hong Kong, this book summons up memories of that visually stunning city. But, it's not the author's best work among those I've read to date.