Customer Reviews

Snakehead

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

May has done the best again. Snakehead made my day--I could not put it down. May surprised me with the unexpected turns.

American pathologist Margaret Campbell left behind her beloved Li Yan in Beijing to come home to Texas where she has become Chief Medical Examiner of Harris County; she never expected to see him again. However, the former Beijing police detective has been reassigned to work at the Chinese embassy in Washington though he has no plans to look up the woman who left him.

When he is sent to work with American authorities investigating the deaths of Chinese citizens in Walker County in Southern Texas, Li and Margaret, on loan to the nearby county, are stunned as both are involved in the inquiry into the suffocation deaths inside a truck's sealed refrigeration unit. As they work together, the attraction remains hotter than the sun, but both knows first they must uncover the Snakehead mastermind behind human smuggling. However, the autopsy reveals they did not die from suffocation; they were injected with a form of the Spanish flu virus which killed millions in 1918 and potentially threatens pandemic billions worldwide now that an offshoot has returned.

The fourth Campbell-Yan police procedural (see THE FOURTH SACRIFICE, FIREMAKER and THE KILLING ROOM) switches the location from China to Texas, but maintains the high quality as Li though several thousand miles from his Communist home still must be cognizant of the rulers. The story line focuses on a real threat based on a plausible biological premise of using the deadly 1918 Spanish flu virus to cause a pandemic. Adding to the feel of this could happen is the dead illegal immigrants, another timely topic in spite of seemingly falling off the map when Tancredo's; run ended. Whether it is France (home of the Macleod investigative thrillers (see EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE, THE CRITIC and BLACKLIGHT BLUE), China or the United States, Peter May always provides readers with an excellent mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Fourth in the author's China Thriller series to be published by this press. Make no mistake this is one scary and thrilling book. So thrilling, in fact I had the sense toward the end of being carried just a bit over the top. The novel brings back two of May's most endearing characters, forensic pathologist Margaret Campbell, American and Beijing detective, Li Yan. But they are no longer in China. Campbell is now the county medical examiner based in Houston, Texas, and Li Yang is learning about and dealing with America's multiple and complex law enforcement agencies as a member of the Chinese Embassy staff in Washington, D.C.

Until a major tragedy brings them together, Campbell is not even aware that they are again in the same country although still thousands of miles physically and culturally apart. The tragedy that brings these two together are the deaths of scores of illegal Chinese immigrants being smuggled to the United State via the same pipeline and organization which smuggles drugs from South America to the U.S. In this incident, the dead are found in a refrigerated truck abandoned in Texas. Those deaths appear to be accidental until it is discovered the bodies have all be injected with a dangerous virus that has no known antidote.

Now the race is on to determine what the virus is, who is behind the multi-million dollar smuggling operation, the Snakehead of the title, and Li Yan and Margaret must try to set aside their own emotional difficulties in order to help literally, save the nation from a devastating plague.

The pace is fast, the writing always to the point, the characters are genuine in their language and their emotions, and most worrisome of all, the science is real. This is a novel with the potential to scare the pants off you. It's timely, international in scope, a whirlwind of a thriller.

This is a review of the audio version, with narration by Simon Vance.

What great luck! I happened to stumble across this book by Peter May quite by accident; but, looking back, I can trace my decision to read/listen to it out for three reasons. First, I've been on kind of Simon Vance narration kick right now, and the title came up as I was browsing through his inventory; second, I read the excellent reviews written here by other amazon.com readers; and third, I'm always up for a good thriller. I'm happy to say that Snakehead (China Thrillers) did not disappoint in any of the three areas.

It's been some time since I've read/listened to a book in which I became so entirely engrossed that I could not put it down until it was finished. And, with about ten hours of audio, this pretty much meant that I spent my entire day yesterday getting absolutely nothing else done but enjoying the book - I couldn't tear myself away from it.

It's really refreshing to be presented with new concepts and material in the thriller genre; I sometimes feel like I'm faced with the same plot over and over again. Snakehead (China Thrillers) is unique; I found it captivating, intriguing, surprising and suspenseful. I also felt that it was extremely well-researched. I came out of it actually learning something new - the scientific and biomedical information was absolutely fascinating, and I appreciated the author's ability to provide information about how all this stuff works, while at the same time fitting it neatly into a tightly-paced sequence of events. I was caught off guard by the narrative several times; I was moved by the realistic thoughts and interactions of the main characters.

And, as always, Simon Vance does a terrific job of bringing this wide range of characters to life in his narration. I'm ready to move on to the next in the series - Runner, The: A China Thriller (China Thrillers)by Peter May; again, with narration by Simon Vance.

Snakehead starts with a truckload of suffocated Chinese recently brought into the country through Mexico, all with a peculiar needle mark.

This is a biomedical mystery set in Texas and Washington with international overtones. The plot is chilling and fast-paced. Margaret Campbell, pathologist and medical examiner has to puzzle through scientific, emotional and political twists to solve the crime and to find the key to the medical time bomb living inside those that did make it across the border.

When her former lover, Li Yan, a Beijing detective, is assigned to the case the emotional stakes are compounded. Familiarity, memories and hurt alternately reveal and obscure elements of the case as they try to find out who or what country might be the culprit and what common edible might be the trigger that will let the infection loose.

The unlikely relationship is compelling and the international and inter-agency twists, while sometimes confusing, amp up the plot.

"Snakehead boss arrested in China." So read a recent headline in the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong's premier English language newspaper. A snakehead is a Chinese people smuggler. They move their human cargo via boat and truck to Japan, Russia, Europe and as far away as Canada and the United States. Oftentimes the people are treated abysmally and sometimes, as in Peter May's fourth China mystery, they don't survive.

This book opens with Walker County Deputy J.J. Jackson chewing a match stick as he's pissing into a creek. It's East Texas, hot and Jayjay, a deputy with good instincts wants a cigarette. Finished, he zips up, gets in his cruiser and drives away. Then he spots a food truck in the parking lot of a Mexican restaurant. His instincts tell him to look and he finds bodies. Illegal Chinese immigrants.

Margaret Campbell has returned to the States from China and is now Chief Medical Examiner of Harris County (which includes Houston and is close to Walker County), Texas and now Li Yan is attached to the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

A first it seems the victims died because of problems with the truck's ventilation system, but during the postmortem Margaret notices that the immigrants had been recently injected in the buttocks and all of a sudden it looks like terrorists have tried to cause an epidemic of some kind in the United States. But an epidemic of what? And how deadly is it?

Li Yan is sent by his embassy to find out what happened to his countrymen. And the on-again, off-again relationship between him and Margaret is on again as they track a killer who threatens millions of lives.

Reviewers for the Highland Times, the Scotsman, the Guardian, the Aberdeen Evening Express and the Irish Times all loved this book because it's a cracking good story, a terrific read and it's my guess that before long reviewers from American newspapers will be touting the prose of Peter May as well.

Peter May's SNAKEHEAD provides the fourth China thriller and returns American pathologist Margaret Campbell back on home soil, facing a truck load of dead Chinese and a Beijing detective who is to work with her to find how his fellow countrymen died. A fine thriller evolves.

In this frightening scenario, the world is confronted with an act of bio-terror that could surpass the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 or the Black Plague during the Middle Ages. It brings back Dr. Margaret Campbell and Beijing detective Li Yan in the fourth of Peter May's China Thrillers in which they have been teamed as lovers as well as to solve mysteries.

This time, they are in the United States: Margaret as the medical examiner in Houston and Li Yan as a liaison officer in the Chinese embassy in Washington. They are reunited as part of a task force put together when illegal Chinese immigrants are found to have been inoculated with an unknown virus. The immigrants were found suffocated in a truck near the Mexican border.

In a race against time, Margaret and Li Yan, along with other members of the task force, endeavor to identify the virus and how it could be activated to potentially infect millions with unbelievable consequences. At the same time, the two have to deal with their own relationship and come to terms with the impediments. Over-all, it is a provocative story, keeping the reader on the edge of his/her seat. Recommended.