Tiger's Tail [Hardcover]

Gus Lee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 1996

From the author of Honor and Duty and China Boy comes an ingenious thriller set in Korea in 1973--a gripping story of sorrow, corruption and redemption, with plenty of brawls to boot.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the manner of Malraux, Greene and le Carre, Lee?in a wise and wrenching novel, beautifully told?uses the thriller form to explore the human condition. His compass is Army prosecutor Jackson Hu-chin Kan, a Chinese-American who resembles not only Lee himself (both went to West Point) but also Kai Ting, hero of Lee's autobiographical first two novels, China Boy (1991) and Honor and Duty (1994). The setting is an isolated Army base along the DMZ between South and North Korea during the bitter winter of early 1974. Kan has been sent there to find another prosecutor, who's gone missing. Aided by two tough sidekicks, one a woman, he sees his mission expand to include deposing the base's power-mad commander, releasing a Yank soldier from a hellhole of a Korean prison and, as the suspense ratchets up, protecting some nuclear arms from a devilish threat. Meanwhile, Kan faces a personal mission: to come to terms with his killing of a young girl during combat in Vietnam?an incident that has come to signify for him God's utter alienation from humanity. Lee's exploration of contrasting Chinese, Korean and American ways are bold and revelatory. His characters tend to wear white or black hats, however, and he sometimes barely skirts sentimentality. But through vigorous prose that writhes across the page, his vision?daring, deep and unflaggingly moral?comes to vibrant life as he takes Kan on a tense and moving journey toward redemption.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Jackson Kan, first-born son of a Chinese American family and a military lawyer, is sent to a base on the Korean DMZ during the final days of the Nixon administration as part of an undercover legal team. He is there to probe the disappearance of another lawyer sent to investigate the base's senior legal officer, Col. Frederick LeBlanc, a.k.a. The Wizard. Working with two other lawyers?Magrip, a violence-loving Vietnam vet, and Levine, a feminist nuclear weapons expert?Kan gradually uncovers LeBlanc's plans for plunging Korea, and perhaps the world, into war. He, meanwhile, has personal demons to battle, the result of an ill-fated tour of Vietnam and the conflicting demands of his Chinese and American heritages. A gripping, literate military thriller with appeal to genre fans and readers of serious fiction alike. Highly recommended.?Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 298 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; Stated First Edition edition (March 19, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679438556
• ISBN-13: 978-0679438557
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,377,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Off the Beaten Path, June 4, 2000

By 

Sarah Massey (San Antonio, Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tiger's Tail (Hardcover)

Having read mysteries for 30 years I quickly get bored with most of the genre these days and now find myself searching the mystery bookshelves for foreign translations and those not "fitting the mold." Finding Gus Lee's Tiger's Tail has been a delightful venture into Korea's mountainous DMZ and a very strange world of misfits, sadists, and good guys. Lee bounced from the present to his past in a single line that sometimes sent me backtracking and rereading to catch the wit of his metaphors, but I found that delightful as the writing was not the "same old thing." It all seemed pretty horrible and his characters were definitely bigger than life with steroids. Jackson Kan found his buddy and I still had a 100 pages to go as his "mission" kept expanding. I found both the mystery of the Tiger's Tail and the succinct humorous phraseology a really good read that was different than all the others.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very entertaining read!, April 18, 2009

By 

Tom Horn "Gus Lee Fan" (Nocona, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tiger's Tail (Paperback)

I served with the U.S. Army a couple of years in Camp Casey, and Gus Lee does a masterful job of describing the bleakness and sadness of Camp Casey and Tongduchon near the Korean DMZ.....also of describing the ever-present threat from North Korea. The "speed bump" analogy was used a lot by those of us who were stationed in Casey. While in Korea, sure would have been nice to have met someone like Jackson Hu-Chin Kan. Following Jackson's adventures through the Seoul to Tongduchon corrider was a thrilling experience - also brought back a lot of memories. The chilling filth and terrible conditions in the Korean prison was, no doubt, accurately described.....even nightmarish. The storyline was very interesting, and provided some insight regarding the current and ongoing threat to South Korea and our troops in South Korea. Bravo, Gus Lee!